♪ mandolin ♪ add bass What a beauty, wow!

♪ I'm a journalist and I'm traveling across the United States of America.

On this journey, I'll be visiting some iconic American experiences.

My next stop is Hawaii.

♪ ♪ pedal steel I've come to Hawaii; this state is famous for its fabulous beaches, beautiful scenery and Hawaiian culture.

I start my trip on the island of Molokai, which is far from touristy, and gives you a sense of real island living.

I traveled to the east end of Molokai to the Halawa Valley.

It's recommended to hire a cultural guide here to show you around.

I met mine and was given a traditional greeting.

♪ conch horn ♪ conch horn (higher pitch) (Singing in Olelo Hawai'i ) (Singing in Olelo Hawai'i ) (Singing in Olelo Hawai'i ) (Singing in Olelo Hawai'i ) ♪ conch horn (rooster crows) One of the special things about Molokai is that there's a high percentage of people here who have Native Hawaiian ancestry, and I'm with Greg Solatorio.

I'm in the Halawa Valley and Greg is a cultural practitioner.

Tell me a little bit about your family's connection to the land here?

Well, my family's connection to the land, today we're known to be the last original family left in the valley.

And today, my dad is known to be the last original elder left, born and raised, traditionally still living in the valley today.

[Brandy] Wow.

Tell me why you've decided to continue studying your culture and wearing the clothing that you're doing and eating the way that you do?

I chose to live this lifestyle and keep practicing the culture and sharing with people, because that is what makes me who I am and that is what I was taught to do.

I was raised in a very unique lifestyle where my dad was able to teach me all the traditions and the cultures and the way of the native people because he was taught by the elders and just being able to hand it down and share it with me and all today I get to share all of that with everybody.

I'm, I'm a subsistence liver.

I'm a cultural practitioner.

So I hunt, I fish.

I dive.

I grow my own garden.

Wonderful.

So what are you gonna show me here today?

Today what I'm gonna do with you is today I'm actually gonna teach you a little bit about our traditional Hawaiian food, which is called poi.

In our homes we call it pa'i 'ai and it is made out of the root of the taro plant but in Hawaiian culture, we call it kalo.

And what we do is we will grow this root in patties of water.

And after we harvest this root, which is like an underwater potato, we'll boil it or steam it and will mash it into a paste which we would eat in our everyday meals.

That would be our main staple food, breakfast, lunch and dinner, snack, every single day.

Alright, now what we will do is we will take the fish... with the poi.

[Brandy] How would you describe what it tastes like?

Heaven.

(laughs) Basically a beautiful combination of salty and sweet.

Oh, can I try some?

And I love the colour.

And you said this is like a tuna?

Yep.

I'll try that first.

Mm, put that in my pocket, it's so good.

And then take a little bit of that?

Yup.

It's not that sweet, it kind of brings out... the flavour of the fish and is very smooth.

And it makes a beautiful combination, which is very, very good.

Well, Greg, thank you so much for showing me this.

I have never had anything like this in my life.

And you worked so hard to create it.

I can't thank you enough for inviting me here into the valley and to see your home and to meet you.

Thank you very much.

A'ole pilikia, No problem.

♪ I continued to travel around Molokai.

I was sensitive to the fact that the residents are working hard to protect their culture and do not want their community inundated with tourists.

I decided to visit a local farmer who opens his doors to visitors.

While I'm here on the island of Molokai, I really wanted to taste and learn about macadamia nuts.

They are delicious and they're grown here.

I'm with Tuddie Purdy.

He owns a macadamia nut farm.

Tell me how complicated it is to grow these nuts?

Well, for myself, personal.

The farm is in back of us.

It was planted almost one hundred years ago.

The trees actually producing abundant, almost three hundred and fifty pounds of it per tree per harvest season.

It's a unique tree because it produces the nuts, only when they fall twelve months in a year.

It starts with flowers, of which is white and fluffy.

There's 60, maybe up to 100 or more of them per stem.

Flowers of macadamia nuts also produces a honey, macadamia blossom.

From the flowers all the way through the actual harvested, not on the ground will take about five to six months.

They fall normally in a green husk condition.

So it's not a ripe color that we're looking at when we're harvesting the nut until we take the husk off and then we'll know for sure if they're actually ripe.

So I'll show you if this is a ripe nut by (crunch) taking the husk off.

(crunch) And once we do that and we're looking at the nut in the shell, finding a nice brown coloured one like that would be a ripe nut.

Before we can actually crack it to get the kernel out we need to dry it so we're drying it out in open bins.

Takes us at least a week to do that.

Once they've been dried, now we can crack it.

Now we can get the kernel out of that shell.

So let's see what they taste like out of the shell.

We're going to use this tool, which is the holding tool we made, especially for the visitor.

This is how we're gonna hold the nut.

All you gotta be with the nut, firm but gentle.

[Brandy] Whoa!

[Tuddie] Breaking that hard shell, if the nut is dried, if they are creamy in colour like that... [Brandy] Wow.

[Tuddie] ...that would be edible as a raw nut.

That is gorgeous!

Look at it!

I can eat it right now?

Right now.

MMMMM...

So creamy.

I love it.

[Tuddie] Right out of the shell.

Wow.

Doesn't get better than this, does it?

Doesn't.

So what's the next step?

The next step is taking that raw kernel and roasting it in the oven.

Nothing at all except for Hawaiian salt.

And we do that up there.

[Tuddie] So now we've taken the raw kernel and roasted it in the oven with no oils, preservatives or additives in it.

So we call this naturally roasted in only Hawaiian salt.

Mmm!

Mm-hm.

It brings the flavour out.

Roasted nut.

It's really, really delicious.

Now we're going to take this coconut.

We'll use it like a spoon to try this honey, which is your Macadamia Blossom Honey.

Where'd you get the coconut?

The coconut is from my farm.

Mmm, so good!

I'm sorry, Tuddie.

I have to do it like that because I don't usually get fresh coconut so I had to taste it on its own first.

Oh, wow.

Mm.

It's very sweet, very fruity.

Syrupy but it does not crystalize.

Wow.

Thank you so much Tuddie for inviting me here.

And I really appreciate you taking the time to show me your farm and to let me taste all these delicious things.

Thank you so much.

Mahalo nui loa.

Aloha.

♪ On the next leg of my journey, I'll be exploring Hawaii's waters on an expedition vessel.

It's a small ship and there's only twenty- six other passengers.

And we'll be navigating the water together.

♪ I'm here on the bridge of the Safari Explorer.

I'm with Captain Gavin Rainwater.

Gavin, give me a sense of what you're thinking about when it comes to navigating this ship and the marine wildlife that might be in the area?

Yeah.

So we have a thing in the US called the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

And basically what that says is you're not to come within one hundred yards from any marine mammal.

So that could be anything from a humpback whale to dolphins, seals, things of that nature.

And what might we see while we're snorkelling?

Yeah.

Mostly fish.

Sometimes we can see green sea turtles.

The Lanai spot we've been seeing octopus, white-tip reef sharks that are very benign and sleepy during the day (chuckles) a nd just, you know, beautiful tropical fish and coral.

[Brandy] Well, this sounds like a lot of fun.

I'm really excited.

Thanks for letting me come on the bridge here.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah.

Glad to have you.

♪ ♪ [Brandy] We use small boats to travel from our expedition vessel to the different islands.

Our first stop was the island of Lanai.

It's basically a private island, mostly owned by one person.

It's famous for its luxurious resorts and golfing but there's much more to see here.

♪ I'm visiting the Lanai Culture and Heritage Center, which celebrates the land, resources, people and history of this beautiful island.

I'm with Diane Preza.

She works here.

Diane, tell me why this center exists?

Being Native Hawaiian, I feel it's a responsibility for us to perpetuate Hawaiian culture, to share our roots here on the island because it's so rich in history.

So it's important for the community to understand that the center is a resource for them to come and visit and also for visitors to learn more about the island.

And when you come here and you're looking in the different cabinets of the displays, what can you see?

[Diane] So you might see things that were from a period long ago.

You might see some petroglyphs on little rocks.

You might see a papamu, which is a stone checkerboard that Hawaiians used a long time ago.

You might see ulumaika which are rolling kind of stons that the Hawaiians used to play games.

If you go into the plantation room, you might see things like an old tofu press grinder, which was used to grin soybeans for fresh tofu for us.

You might see some things that they used during the plantation in the pineapple fields.

[Brandy] And what are we going to make here?

[Diane] So we're going to make a lei today out of la‘i which is a traditional Hawaiian plant.

It's important in Hawaiian culture, it's used to ward off evil, but also used for medicine and for cooking.

But it's a versatile plant that is revered in Hawaiian tradition.

And we'll be intertwining the la‘i with a fern called palapalai.

And it's quite fragrant and important in hula and for adornment and also for decorating altars.

It's just beautiful.

Thank you.

So the way we get started is, you have the la'i, you remove the mid rib.

And so basically these are both sides of it.

And to make it pliable, you could put it in the microwave for about a minute.

Some people choose to iron it.

Some people boil it.

But the idea is to get the la'i pliable.

So I'm gonna need your assistance.

Sure.

You could just hold.

And what I'll be doing is basically twisting.

And then what I'll do is I'll take some fern, palapalai fern and I'll add it in to the lei.

[Brandy] And did you grow up making these?

[Diane] Actually, I grew up making different types of Lei.

Not particularly this one, but this plant was in my yard, the la'i, and then the palapalai was found right outside of the center.

So we have a Hawaiian garden outside of the centre, which has many plants that are either medicinal or for adornment.

To teach visitors and children some of the things that are found in Lana'I that are important in Hawaiian culture.

Regarding Hawaiian culture here, it's important to remember where we came from because there was a time when things like language and learning about culture were banned in Hawaii.

And now there's a renaissance and people are becoming more aware of the Hawaiian culture and its importance.

These are some of the traditional practices that we do and we teach to the youngsters.

Hawaiian people are resilient.

They find ways to overcome obstacles and challenges.

And it's through education that Hawaiians are learning about their history and their roots.

And we at the Culture Center just embrace that and we try to find all kinds of ways to help encourage that.

[Brand] I'm so happy to have the chance to meet you, Diane, and to see how you make this.

It's a lot of work, but I can see how beautiful it is.

It would be something that I could imagine wearing at a wedding or something.

[Diane] So I think the more you make it, the more comfortable you get doing it.

[Brandy] Wow, I get a bracelet?

You could.

Yeah, could make a k'paeu or you could have a necklace.

I love it.

It's fabulous.

Thank you so much, Diane, for having me here and showing me this incredible piece of art and sharing your culture and history with me.

Thank you.

♪ We made our way back to the ship where we rested that evening so we could be ready for the next day's adventure.

Dolphins followed us playing in the boat's waves.

♪ The next day, we traveled to the island of Maui.

It is the second largest Hawaiian island and is known for local farm to table cuisine and tasty treats.

♪ While I'm visiting the island of Maui, I've come to the town of Lahaina and I was curious about the craft beer scene in Hawaii.

So I'm visiting Kohola Brewery.

I'm with Christine Elumba and Ray Johnson.

They both work at the brewery.

Christine, tell me about the beer scene in Hawaii?

It's really exciting.

It's growing the local craft beer scene.

We have about fourteen in the state of Hawaii and there's two in island of Maui.

And we're just really happy and proud to be a part of this craft beer scene, as everybody who wants to, who's visiting, is really interested in what kind of local beers and tastes that we have to offer.

Absolutely.

And Rai, you are the head brewer.

Tell us about what we're gonna be tasting?

Yeah!

So we're gonna have a little sample flight here.

The first one we're gonna do is our Red Sand.

It's an amber ale.

So the amber ale focuses more on the malt flavours.

So there's gonna be some roasty and toasty flavours in here, sort of the aroma of some fresh brownies.

Oh ya... Hmmmmm... How would you describe that, Christine?

Malty and roasty and toasty and it's perfectly paired with food.

And the food in Hawaii is amazing!

Of course.

What's the second one?

Yes.

So the second one here, this is a New England style, hazy IPA.

You can tell why they call 'em hazy.

But one of the things about this style of IPA is, is they're not as bitter as most traditional IPAs.

So they have a lot of, uh, fruit flavours, a lot of stone fruits, a lot of strong aromas and juicy flavours.

[Brandy] You know, I like it.

It's crisp and I'm not a fan of IPAs.

But I could drink this.

[Rai] Yeah, I hear that a lot.

Mmmm... alright.

And we have the third one here.

[Rai] Yeah!

So this is a "talk story", Pale Ale.

So this is our easiest drinking beer that we have.

"Talk story" is a term that we use out here in Hawaii and it sort of means hanging out with your friends and talking about your day.

Wow.

And you want to drink these all day, right?

Yeah.

That's right.

Mmmm.

That is very light.

I love it.

It's a fan favourite; it's my favourite, too.

Yeah?

Mm!

I like this one a lot, and then the last one?

[Rai] So this last one, this is our Waterman IPA.

So this is a more traditional Northwest style IPA.

So it's gonna be a little higher in alcohol, a little higher in hop flavour.

But instead of the fruity hop flavours; we're going for a little bit more earthy, grassy, piney flavour here.

Mmmm.

This would be good with a meal, but it's kind of like a meal in itself.

[Rai] It could be.

[Brandy] Is there anything specific about beer that's connected to Hawaii?

Yeah.

So out here in Hawaii, people like to drink beer pretty much any day out of the year.

And so because of that, we like to make a lot of beers that are high in flavour, but a little bit lower in alcohol, something that you can enjoy throughout the day, maybe have a couple of.

I know that in places that are colder that you might have stronger, darker beers but out here in the tropics, usually a little bit lighter in color, a little bit lighter in bodies, easier to drink.

Well, it makes sense.

You can just sort of have a day and just drink all day.

That's right!

Well, cheers.

Thank you so much.

Okole maluna.

(Bottoms up!)

Cheers.

All right!

♪ ♪ The following day, we continued our adventure on the island of Hawaii.

Many call it by its nickname, the "Big Island".

It is the youngest and largest island of the United States Hawaiian archipelago.

I've come to Kaloko- Honokohau National Historic Park on the island of Hawaii.

This is a sacred place where people can come and learn about ancient Hawaiian history and the land that people have been living off of for generations.

The park was designated in 1978 as a center for the preservation, interpretation and perpetuation of traditional Native Hawaiian activities and culture.

These rocks here are in an area which is known as KAPU, which is basically you can look and enjoy the historical knowledge here, but you can't touch, you cannot disturb these rocks because they have spiritual significance.

It's like a church here.

And every single rock has a story.

And it's great for people to have the opportunity to learn, just as long as they don't disrupt things because we need these cultural places to be here forever.

The park also shows how the land was used historically.

You can learn about the ingenious fishing and agricultural practices that native Hawaiians used when they built large ponds to raise fish for food.

This incredible structure is a canoe garage.

It's so beautiful.

I think I'd like one in my backyard.

When you are here, you can imagine yourself going back in time, even before the written language was here.

When people expressed themselves through carvings on rock.

One of the interesting things of the national park is this petroglyph, which has been found recently.

It was created by native Hawaiians and it's a tall ship.

You see the three masts, one, two, three and the bottom of the ship here, and the bow of the boat.

And this this could be an example of when native Hawaiians first had contact with people from the outside, like Captain Cook right here for people to see, that has been preserved in this lava.

Unbelievable.

While we're exploring Kaloko- Honokohau National Historical Park I'm with Ben Eisenstein.

He's the expedition leader here on UnCruise Adventures.

He's helping us interpret what these different petroglyphs are.

What are we looking at here, Ben?

So right here, we've got a musket.

So we can infer a few things about this.

So we think this was pos contact with the western world, so after Captain Cook arrived, and it's been suggested that a major battle took place here.

Wow.

I'm just curious, when you bring visitors to the National Historical Park, what kind of questions are they asking you?

What are they interested in seeing?

Well, probably one of the biggest things everyone wants to come to the petroglyphs around here.

We always come to a loop here.

We do a hike to some the lava fields.

There's a lot of wildlife here.

You can kind of hear those birds in the background.

It's a hotspot for shorebirds out here, turtles along the beaches.

[Brandy] Wow.

Fantastic.

I love it.

♪ ♪ We completed our voyage and disembarked the ship.

I continued my journey on the island of Hawaii.

I wanted to get up close and personal with some of the beautiful creatures I had seen throughout my travels.

To finish my trip I've traveled to the northern tip of the island of Hawaii to Kapa‘au to the Hawaii Wildlife Center.

I'm with Alexis Wessels And Alexis works with native birds and bats helping to rehabilitate them.

Alexis, tell me what's happening in the pool here?

So this is our conditioning pool.

This is about the last stage of rehabilitation for these birds.

We have six wedge-tailed shearwaters out here and one endangered Hawaiian petrel.

They're swimming out here testing their waterproofing.

The staff gets to make sure that we know that they're going to do well in the wild.

They're nice and waterproof and active on the pool.

They get to experience fresh air.

This is the most realistic for their natural environment.

So it's, it's really helpful for them.

And less stress out here, too.

And why would they be here, Alexis, in the first place?

So especially with these wedge-tailed shearwaters and these seabirds, when they leave the burrow for the first time, their nest, they, they follow the moon when they fledge.

And that's the season right now.

So that's why we have quite a few of them.

They get confused by artificial lights and so they end up circling around streetlights or stadium lights and ending up needing some, a little bit of assistance from us.

OK.

So I guess if you have extra lights, turn them off at night to help the birds.

Absolutely.

If you have any unnecessary lights that don't need to be on at night, turning those off would be super helpful for these guys.

Anything to, to limit the distractions from the moon.

So why do you think that the center needs to exist at all Alexis?

So we are the only purpose-built wildlife rehabilitation facility for the entire state.

So we service all the islands.

It's really important to help advocate for these species.

We have a lot of endangered birds and we are the extinction capital of the world here in Hawaii.

So it's really important to help keep our biodiversity up and really help these guys out.

Wow, okay let's go see some of the other birds.

Let's do it!

♪ All right, so we are ready to feed our Hawaiian hawk.

They are only found on the big island.

This guy was admitted for some trauma to the right side of his body.

So you will see his right eye is a little bit closed and his wings aren't really working on the right side.

So he is a non-releasable bird.

So that's why we're glove feeding him right now.

So we're training to get him to eat on the, on the gloves so that he can be an ambassador for his species.

[Alexis] All right Brandy so why don't you go ahead, you've got the food in your hand.

Let's see if he'll go onto your glove.

He's still an in-training kind of bird so, there you go.

Hold on to it.

Nice and tight for that.

There we go.

Beautiful.

What a beauty.

Wow!

This is incredible.

[Alexis] So he will work on that piece.

Well, I just love this bird and I'm learning so much.

I mean, this is incredible to have a chance to have a hawk.

Absolutely.

An endangered species right here on your glove.

Well, I have to say, this has been an incredible experience.

I want to thank you so much for inviting me here Yeah!

Thank you for coming!

and for teaching me about this wonderful, wonderful bird.

Thank you.

He likes you.

He feels comfortable with you.

I've had an incredible time here in the state of Hawaii.

It was so much fun exploring the different islands by ship.

And I saw turtles, dolphins, birds, whales; but my favourite thing was meeting the people and learning more about the Hawaiian culture.

♪