Over a quarter of a million Pacific Islanders call NZ home. But I'm a bit embarrassed to say I don't know that much about the country or the cultures they come from. So I'm off on a journey, a voyage of discovery, across the Pacific. Captions by Imogen Staines. Edited by Ingrid Lauder. www.able.co.nz Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Copyright Able 2014 Hawaii is a cluster of beautiful volcanic islands located over 3000km from mainland America. Nonetheless, it became the 50th US state in 1959 and is very visibly an outpost of Americana slap bang in the middle of the vast Pacific Ocean. When many people think of Hawaii, this is what they picture ` acres of people on a white sandy beach, gently baking in the sunshine. But I'm thinking, surely to goodness, there has to be more to it than this. Although it's a part of the United States, the indigenous population are Polynesian, and it's their culture I'm interested in exploring. Of course, it wouldn't be America if there wasn't a theme park. At the Polynesian Cultural Centre, you can experience the delights of Polynesia in a convenient 42 acres. The whole of the Pacific is recreated right here. There's Tahiti, Fiji, Samoa, Easter Island, even Aotearoa. Exit through the gift shop. Away from the theme parks, there's been a renaissance in traditional Hawaiian arts and culture. One practice fighting its way back is lua, the ancient martial art of the Hawaiian warrior. From what I gather, it was almost totally lost as an art form. From what I gather, it was almost totally lost as an art form. Yes. The missionaries banned lua because they wanted to make sure that none of these people could attack back. It went underground for many years, until King Kalakaua came back, where he had men trained in secrecy. The last guy, Charles Kenn, we tracked him down, and after all kinds of different negotiations, he decided to teach us the art itself. Incredible, isn't it, that something that was so fundamental a part of the culture can go down to just one single person? can go down to just one single person? That's right. The last one. This is a sacred art. Only the chiefs would learn it, for the most part. One of the drawbacks of being a chief, isn't it? (LAUGHS) You have to actually go` You had to show your mana. That you're a fighter. People would follow, you know? So, if you were a commoner, standing there going, 'Oh, I'm not really into this,' and two champions went out and fought, and say, your champion lost... You run away. So everybody would just be running and getting out of the way after that. Yeah. What are the chances of learning a move? Chances are great. Chances are great. (LAUGHS) Well, what I probably would be particularly adept at is being, I guess, the victim. (LAUGHS) I guess, the victim. (LAUGHS) Oh yes, yes, yes, yes. So, I'm gonna punch you Yep. Then he could take you down by nerve pressure, and he's going to dislocate your elbow... and he's going to dislocate your elbow... Yep. Ooh. Oh. ...and give you a knockout. ...and give you a knockout. Right. Tell you what, you get a good sense of how unpleasant that would be. Tell you what, you get a good sense of how unpleasant that would be. CHUCKLING < Now we go a little bit faster. Little bit fast` Little bit fast` Not too fast. (LAUGHS) Little bit fast` Not too fast. (LAUGHS) (LAUGHS) A little bit fast. Yeah. I can understand why the missionaries might have frowned upon martial arts, but there's another Hawaiian practice they suppressed that seems, at first, to be entirely innocent. To find out more, I've tracked down an expert on the art and mythology of kites. < Hello, Damion. < Hello, Damion. Hey. How's it going? Good. (LAUGHS) Lovely day for flying a kite. Good. (LAUGHS) Lovely day for flying a kite. Yeah. Well, we're trying. I imagine there's people driving past going, 'What's a grown man doing in a field, flying a kite?' You know, why wouldn't you wanna fly a kite on a day like today out here in Kualoa? In the Pacific Islands, kites were much more than a kids' toy. They used them for religious purposes, meteorology and even propulsion on canoes. One of the only ways that we can get information about this particular technology is to experiment with it, so that's what I'm out here doing. so that's what I'm out here doing. Shall we see if we can't`? so that's what I'm out here doing. Shall we see if we can't`? We can try and fly this one, yeah. It's a lovely decorative tail. It's a lovely decorative tail. If you wanna go ahead and grab this, and try and get it to go. Get up. # You know you're so fine. From a religious standpoint, the kahuna that would fly these kites, they would do it to make connections with the gods. If you had a device like a kite that could bridge the gap or communicate with the gods` Like a direct line to the gods. Like a direct line to the gods. That's what it was. Little wonder the missionaries didn't like it. Little wonder the missionaries didn't like it. That's right. That's what happened. In the 1820s, the Protestant missionaries showed up and saw a lot of kite flying. It was associated with spiritual practices. They said, 'This can't happen,' and outlawed kite flying. Missionaries say you will go straight to hell for flying a kite. Very powerful words for what we think is a recreational device. People sort of forget about that. You know, when the Taliban in Afghanistan banned kite flying, and we said, 'Oh, who would do that?' Well,... our ancestors. (LAUGHS) So close. > So close, and then my tail fell off. So close, and then my tail fell off. RATTLING MOMENTOUS MUSIC Many people associate Hawaii with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour. What a lot of people don't know is that, at the time, 43% of Hawaii's population were of Japanese descent. This was obviously a problematic time for them. Their loyalty was questioned. Are you Japanese or are you American? Now there are more Japanese visitors every year than there are people who live here. And the question of are you Japanese or American is best addressed to this ` spam sushi, a delicate blend of the finest of both cultures' cuisines. UPBEAT MUSIC So wrong, and yet, at the same time, so very right. One, thanks. Awesome. Cheers. Captain James Cook was killed in Hawaii in 1779 but not before he named the place the Sandwich Islands, after the Earl of Sandwich, the inventor of the sandwich. I'm hoping for a better reception ` and a sandwich ` on Lanai, one of the smallest of Hawaii's eight major islands. It was also one of the last islands to be inhabited, because Hawaiians believed that its mist-shrouded hills were home to man-eating spirits. Hi, Radar. Hi, Radar. How you doing? Hi, Radar. How you doing? I'm fine. Nice to meet you, finally. Nice to meet you, finally. Welcome to Lanai. Nice to meet you, finally. Welcome to Lanai. Thank you. Now Lanai is home to Alberta De Jetley, a journalist who runs the local newspaper. She's a former town councillor, general go-getter and the only commercial farmer on the island. A lot of bananas, really, isn't it? A lot of bananas, really, isn't it? Yeah. Oh. I got it. Oh. I got it. Good catch. Oh. I got it. Good catch. I got it. I got it. It's considerably more violent than I had anticipated. No. It's just` You've gotta give it a good whack, and then it's done. Yeah. And they are surprisingly heavy. Yeah. And they are surprisingly heavy. Yeah. This will be the freshest banana I've ever eaten. This will be the freshest banana I've ever eaten. Oh. The only way for that to have been fresher would be to have eaten it while it was on the tree. (LAUGHS) (LAUGHS) It is marvellous. It's an island, I suppose, that for the last 50 years has been renowned for its fruits. Almost 70 years of pineapple. Almost 70 years of pineapple. Almost 70? Hmm. Yes. At one time, we had almost 20,000 acres of land covered by pineapple plants. Right. And it was known as the Pineapple Island? Right. And it was known as the Pineapple Island? Yes. Those were the good days. James Dole started the plantation in 1922. When I was 15 years old` in those days, as soon as you turned 15 and it was summertime, you went to work in the pineapple fields. As time moved forward, it just became more and more expensive to produce pineapple on Lanai, as Dole had plantations in the Philippines, where they could raise pineapple for a fourth of what it cost to raise it on Lanai. When the last crop was harvest, that was a sad day in our history. Here's a fruit that you may already be familiar with ` NZ tree tomatoes. A little tamarillo. It's nice, I suppose, to see a little bit of biodiversity in what used to be entirely pineapples. Yes. Because you can't eat pineapples every day. This is going to be a little bit overkill. You hold that. That's a good idea. You hold that. That's a good idea. It's not going to work. What if I`? What if I`? Oh, there we go. What if I`? What if I`? Oh, there we go. Oh here. Here, here. Here we go. It's almost like using a guillotine, huh? Looks good on the inside. Looks good on the inside. Doesn't it look amazing? Compared to other Hawaiian islands, Lanai is a sleepy place. There are just over 3000 residents, no traffic lights, and surprisingly, for an outpost of America, no shopping malls. The only real revenue is from tourism. Recently, computer software billionaire Larry Ellison paid what is said to be around $600 million for almost the entire island. He plans to turn it into a model for environmentally sustainable enterprise. How much of Lanai does he own? About 97%. When you imagine someone buying an island, you imagine them buying a tiny little island. This is a pretty substantial piece of land, and there are 3000-odd people who live here. And, yeah, it's quite` it's quite amazing. Just the fact that Mr Ellison has all this computer stuff and, you know, computer-based technology, we have the potential to become a` more than just a resort destination, and that's really exciting. Mm. Cos it's a pretty nice place to come for a holiday. Mm. Cos it's a pretty nice place to come for a holiday. < (LAUGHS) Cos clear` So nice, in fact, that it's like that guy from the Schick razor ads. 'It's so lovely, I bought the whole place.' 'It's so lovely, I bought the whole place.' (LAUGHS) Phenomenal to think that, at one stage, Linai was responsible for 75% of the world's pineapple crop. If you look around here now, despite growing pineapples here for 70 years, you can` you'd be pretty hard pressed to find a pineapple anywhere. In fact, the real legacy of the pineapple industry here is all of this black plastic that they used as weed matting coming up out of the soil, eventually ending up in the sea. Bit dire, really. Not a very` Not a very sweet legacy. Thanks, Dole (!) While Lanai locals hope Larry Ellison will help the island become an icon for environmental sustainability, there's a man credited with saving the island from an earlier ecological disaster. His name is George Munro. And for me, the most astonishing thing about Munro is that he was actually a NZer, who came here to manage a ranch back in the 1890s. When George Munro arrived here on Lanai from NZ, it was a windswept, desolate, dusty kind of place. But as he sat on his porch, he could hear moisture dripping from this tree as the mist came over the hills, tantalising the island with the moisture it contained. He surmised, quite correctly, that trees such as this could literally harvest that water from the air, capture it from the clouds and bring it down into the earth. And so he embarked upon a massive tree-planting campaign, and now those trees line the island. They capture that elusive mist, bring it down and green the place up. Good on you, George. And good on you, Norfolk pine. Environmentalism takes many forms, and one of the more unusual and charming examples is also to be found on Lanai. Hi, Kathy. Hi, Kathy. Hi, Radar. Welcome to Kitty Land. You've come to see our little Lanai lions. You've come to see our little Lanai lions. The little Lanai lions. I don't think I've ever been anywhere with so many cats. I know. We actually have 380 out here. Really? Really? It's a cageless outdoor cat park. Plenty of room for them to roam around, and they've all been spayed and neutered too. Looking around at all of these cats, the first thing I'm thinking is, 'Why are they here?' Because they were all feral. They were roaming around town, all kind of making a nuisance of themselves, I have to say. The wildlife experts discovered some endangered birds here on the island. We thought, 'Oh gosh. We have to find a way to remove the cats from endangered bird areas.' We call it 'clean and green'. I think you'll notice there's no cat smell, no odour here. Like, if I stand here,... (SNIFFS) all I can smell is cat biscuits. (LAUGHS) (LAUGHS) Making` Making you hungry. (LAUGHS) Making you hungry. (LAUGHS) It is making me a little bit hungry. If I was a cat, I'd quite like it here. Can I get into some heavy petting? Can I get into some heavy petting? Yes. Heavy petting. > LIVELY MUSIC That is the chubbiest ginger I've seen since I looked in the mirror. That is the chubbiest ginger I've seen since I looked in the mirror. (LAUGHS) Shut up. He's, like, 'Hello. Hello.' He's, like, 'Hello. Hello.' Hello. Scratch me. Pat me. I can remove him if I could lift him up. I can remove him if I could lift him up. (LAUGHS) How does he get up to where the food is? How does he get up to where the food is? Oh, we have ladders. Did you notice? Oh, right. I don't know that he needs a ladder. Kitty Camp has partnered up with local resorts to offer their guests the opportunity to do some volun-tourism. That's volunteer work done by tourists. CHEERFUL MUSIC Like a cat buffet, isn't it? Like a cat buffet, isn't it? It is. Hello. Lunchtime. They're well looked after. Normally, I imagine, they'd just go shoom! Kitty treats. Kitty treats. Everyone loves a treat. We have some volunteers who don't even want another volunteer to help them, because it's their time to come and just relax. You can be having the worst day in the world. You come out here and all your troubles just fade away. Ah! (LAUGHS) > Ah! (LAUGHS) > What a life, eh? Who needs to go to Africa to see big cats when you can come here and see cute little ones you can cuddle? Yeah. And take home. (LAUGHS) I don't know that Gareth Morgan would be very happy about that. It'd be nice to think that we could do something like this in NZ to deal with our feral cat population. Yes, I am not unaware of the irony of the fact that, here on an island with a quest for sustainability, I'm tootling about in one of the most gratuitous examples of American excess. Land of contrasts. UPBEAT UKULELE MUSIC This is the island of Oahu, home to some of the world's most famous beaches and some very big waves. No trip to Hawaii would be complete without indulging in their most famous pastime. Initially the preserve of royalty, it was, like most fun things, banned by missionaries, and it is something that I have never been able to master. RELAXED MUSIC I'm meeting Hawaiian surfing legend Buttons Kaluhiokalani, one of the first professional surfers, and reputedly, the first man to be filmed performing a 360 on a surfboard. Aloha, Buttons. Today Buttons runs his own surf school. Where did it all start ` surfing, here in Hawaii? Basically, only the kings could surf. Could you imagine just having the whole spot to yourself? You know? You know? Yeah. You know? Yeah. That would be a beauty. What kind of boards would they use then? Gee. Back then, they're using wooden boards, koa boards. I had heard that some of them were up to sort of 80 kilos. Yes. Really, really, really heavy. Yes. Really, really, really heavy. Basically like surfing on a log. On a log. (LAUGHS) Yeah, basically, that's what it was, you know? When was that transition ` you must've lived through that ` from those big long boards? Then suddenly, everyone's on short boards, doing tricks. You invented tricks? You invented tricks? I kind of` I don't like to brag about it, but... There's` Yeah. I did do` Listen, when I was a young boy, I was ahead of my time, so I did a lot of things, you know, not as hard as these kids today, but, you know, it had to start somewhere. Did you ever imagine it was gonna get as big as it is now? You know, there's surf schools all along this beach. There's all that money to be made in tournaments. It's kind of cool, and then it's kind of... You know? Because I'm, like, more like a soul surfer. And I think sometimes it's too much. Balance. All you need is balance. Like a squat. I basically love what I do, and I love sharing. Usually, when I take people to surf, I don't give up until they get up and ride waves. Know what I mean? And I like making it fun and joyous for everyone. So, I'm kind of happy. I'm really happy. What am I saying 'kind of'? I'm stoked. < You look happy. Look at your office. I was gonna say ` this is my office. This is my suit and tie. And I cannot complain. See if you can give me a lesson. See if you can give me a lesson. I'm gonna show you how. I guarantee you'll get up and ride waves. All right. Shall we do it? All right. Shall we do it? Let's do it. < Find that centre. Knees. I want you to put one foot up. Up there. Boom. Boom. Yes, Radar. Cool, bra. Awesome. Yes. Yes. < Yes. Yep. Let's do this. FUNKY SURFING MUSIC FUNKY SURFING MUSIC CONTINUES That was awesome, bro. You did really really well. You did really really well. Thank you. You did really really well. Thank you. Cool. If Buttons can teach me to surf, he can teach anyone. Too funny boy. I don't know if I have the strength to carry my board back. I don't know if I have the strength to carry my board back. No, leave it. Leave it. I got it. If you can't carry your board, you don't deserve to be in the water. If you can't carry your board, you don't deserve to be in the water. OK. Beautiful. Beautiful. Hawaii's famous for its beaches, but for me, perhaps the real stars are the razor sharp peaks and the lush bush of the interior. This is Kualoa Ranch. Once the sacred domain of kings, it's now one of the biggest private landholdings in the islands. How did your family end up here? How did your family end up here? 1828 my great-great-great-grandfather, Dr Judd, came over with a third ship of the missionaries, and then he bought the original piece of Kualoa Ranch in 1850. What does it mean to the family when you look up here, with all of those generations that have come through? with all of those generations that have come through? Kind of emotional. You know? There's a whole bunch of people behind us that did what they could to preserve this place, and our job is to leave it in as good a shape as we can so that the next generations can have the same. Not only for the owners, but for all of the people that can come up here and enjoy it. It's a big responsibility. It's a big responsibility. You get people coming in waving a chequebook? 'I wanna build a house there.' 'I wanna build a house there.' Occasionally, but if you're not interested, it doesn't matter. What's great, I suppose, is you've got all that history, and then history's being made in there all the time, re-written in films. Yeah. (LAUGHS) Yeah. We've had just about two dozen major motion pictures here ` Jurassic Park, Mighty Joe Young, George of the Jungle, Windtalkers, Tears of the Sun, 50 First Dates, Along Came Polly. I could go on and on and on. They couldn't find any of the dinosaurs, but uh, they must have been green-screened in. You do look at that and you do think to yourself, 'I really hope nothing up there is going to eat me.' (LAUGHS) Despite being offered big money from developers over the years, the Morgans have managed to keep Kualoa as one 4000-acre entity. By using the land as a filmset, and increasingly through eco-tourism, it remains free from hotels and high rises We got rid of the jet skis, got rid of the helicopters. We just got rid of the gun range a little while ago. It was one of our more profitable activities, but it just didn't fit with the brand that we wanted to develop. RELAXED MUSIC I haven't done a particularly good job. > I haven't done a particularly good job. > You've got another half an hour. I could see people coming from all over the world to do this. Volun-tourism. Volun-tourism. Volun-tourism. Volun-tourism. Volun-tourism. There we go. I imagine there's horses there that, as soon as I've finished this, they're going to, um` they're going to contribute to it a little more. I imagine the challenges that you face here are probably pretty similar to what we have at home. How do you keep something like this special without just having trains of people driving through all day? Exactly. It's a big challenge, but we think we've got a good balance right now. What do you think Dr Judd would say if he was here now? You know, 160-odd years later? Yeah. I think Dr Judd would be happy, you know? He, uh, he loved Hawaii, and he loved the Hawaiian people. And I think we're doing well for Hawaii and the Hawaiian people. (SPEAKS HAWAIIAN) (SPEAKS HAWAIIAN) (SPEAKS HAWAIIAN) One of the other cultural icons of Hawaii is the hula, and like other traditional practices, it too was threatened by the arrival of the missionaries. How close did it come to disappearing? Christianity was introduced and the hula became a no-no. Right. > Right. > Yeah. And so hula was banned for many, many, many years, and many of the teachers at that time taught it in caves and hideaways and in secrecy, just to avoid scrutiny, because of the Christian faith, that was overwhelming. Especially with the gyrating hips, it was considered vulgar. If not for King David Kalakaua bringing the hula back to public domain, it probably would have been lost for a lot longer time. Little wonder that King David Kalakaua is so revered by native Hawaiians, after fighting to preserve the hula, the lua martial arts and surfing. It's kind of hard in some ways to imagine Hawaii without the hula. Well, it's a very important part of our livelihood. The land, the ocean, the heavens, the clouds, the wind, the breeze. Everything is expressed through the hula. Yeah, there's no culture without the hula. People say, 'Well, we wanna see the fast hula.' Well, you wanna see Tahitian. That's not what we do. We have different characteristics and emotions of hula. We can get aggressive with our hula. We can be fluid and peaceful with our hula. It really helps people to understand, 'That's just as exciting as a Tahitian dance ` what we thought was the fast hula.' There certainly is a lot more to Hawaii than package holidays to sunny beaches and Magnum PI. It's been a delight to discover a rich, unique indigenous Hawaiian culture that's enjoying its time in the sun, despite the best efforts of early Western missionaries. And you have to feel a little bit sorry for the missionaries. They did their best to suppress everything. They even tried to get people to wear clothes. Can you imagine what they'd think if they took a trip now down to Waikiki? Malama pono a hui hou. Aloha, Hawaii. LIVELY MUSIC Captions by Imogen Staines. Edited by Ingrid Lauder. www.able.co.nz Captions were made possible with funding from NZ On Air. Hey-a! I'll be scarier. Shoo! Shoo! Copyright Able 2014