Monday, February 11, 2019

Kualoa Ranch in Hawaii


If you don't know this Ranch has been the filming location for a TON of movies and TV shows.  It is large and exotic.

We met and got on our bus for a 1 1/2 hour bus tour.  We had a very sweet young girl who was our bus driver/tour guide, and she was great.  I did not catch her name.  She looked like she was maybe 16, but obviously she was older.  She made lots of jokes, including some with potty humor, and she obviously enjoyed her job.  She had everyone cracking up the whole time.  She pointed out wild hogs on the property (I would see a couple walking near the road even near Honolulu later on the trip).  We passed some structures that had been there during WWII.  We went in to a bunker from the war, and there were tons of movie props in it.  Our bus driver gave us a tour inside of it.  Lots of stuff relating to Jumanji, Lost, Kong, etc.  After exiting the bus here, we could see some whale movement and water shooting up in the ocean at a distance.  There was a great view from here too!

We continued our tour, and saw filming locations for the above mentioned movies and more.  Dwayne Johnson was mentioned a lot, as he has been in a lot of films made at the ranch.  Our guide told us that, for one movie (maybe all of them?) filmed there, the filming company had to buy all of the tickets for the days tours. 


A highlight of the trip was driving through a boneyard used for the King Kong Skull Island movie.  A HUGE skull was there, and a horseback riding group went by, so I got a photo of people riding horses through the giant boneyard!

We did get out of the bus for a photo op by a downed tree used in Jurassic Park.  Our bus driver took a couple of photos of us by it, then she told us to look scared, and she took a photo, posing a toy dinosaur near us right by the camera.  The affect is perfect and cool.  An assistant on the tour, also did a couple of photos of us in the field where Jurassic Park was filmed.  He did a cool, almost Matrix like move with his hands, holding two of our groups cameras.  He took a regular photo, AND a panoramic on each phone at the same time.  The pics were perfect too!

At the end of our trip, our guide (who never hinted for a tip) greeted us as we got off the bus.  I was glad to see that she was tipped as she was fantastic.

Kualoa Ranch is a very cool place.  They offer all sorts of tours besides bus tours (hors rides, ATV, etc).















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