Lanai

With no traffic or traffic lights and miles of open space, Lanai seems lost in time, and that can be a good thing. Small (141 square mi) and sparsely populated, it is the smallest inhabited Hawaiian Island and has just 3,500 residents, most of them living Upcountry.

Though it may seem a world away, Lanai is separated from Maui and Molokai by two narrow channels, and is easily accessed by boat from either island. The two resorts on the island are run by the Four Seasons. If you yearn for a beach with amenities, a luxury resort, and golf course, the Four Seasons Resort Lanai at Manele Bay beckons from the shoreline. Upcountry, the luxurious Four Seasons Resort Lodge at Koele provides cooler pleasures. This leaves the rest of the 100,000-acre island open to explore.

Flora and Fauna

Lanai bucks the "tropical" trend of the other Hawaiian Islands with African kiawe trees, Cook pines, and eucalyptus in place of palm trees, and deep blue sea where you might expect shallow turquoise bays. Abandoned pineapple fields are overgrown with drought-resistant grasses, Christmas berry, and lantana; native plants, aalii and ilima, are found in uncultivated areas. Axis deer from India dominate the ridges, and wild turkeys lumber around the resorts. Whales can be seen December through April, and a family of resident spinner dolphins drops in regularly at Hulopoe Bay.

On Lanai Today

Despite its fancy resorts, Lanai still has that sleepy old Hawaii feel. Residents are a mix of just about everything—Hawaiian/Chinese/German/Portuguese/Filipino/Japanese/French/Puerto Rican/English/Norwegian, you name it. The plantation was divided into ethnic camps, which helped retain cultural cuisines. Potluck dinners feature sashimi, Portuguese bean soup, laulau (morsels of pork, chicken, butterfish, or other ingredients wrapped with young taro shoots in ti leaves), potato salad, teriyaki steak, chicken hekka (a gingery Japanese chicken stir-fry), and Jell-O. The local language is pidgin, a mix of words as complicated and rich as the food. In recent years, David Murdock's plan to pay for the resorts by selling expensive homes next to them has met with opposition from locals.

The Ghosts of Lanai

Lanai has a reputation for being haunted (at one time by "cannibal spirits") and evidence abounds: a mysterious purple lehua (an evergreen tree that normally produces red flowers) at Keahialoa; the crying of a ghost chicken at Kamoa; Pohaku O, a rock that calls at twilight; and remote spots where cars mysteriously stall, and lights are seen at night. Tradition has it that Puu Pehe (an offshore sea stack) was a child who spoke from the womb, demanding awa root. A later story claims it is the grave of a woman drowned in a cave at the nearby cliffs. Hawaiians believe that places have mana (spiritual power), and Lanai is far from an exception.

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