A view of the Nā Pali coastline from the ocean, Kauai, Hawaii
Kauai
The island of Kauaʻi has been featured in more than seventy Hollywood movies and television shows
The island of Kauaʻi has been featured in more than seventy Hollywood movies and television shows, including the musical South Pacific and Disney's 2002 animated feature film and television series Lilo & Stitch, Lilo & Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch, Stitch! The Movie, and Lilo & Stitch: The Series. Scenes from South Pacific were filmed in the vicinity of Hanalei. Waimea Canyon was used in the filming of the 1993 film Jurassic Park. Parts of the island were also used for the opening scenes of Indiana Jones' Raiders of the Lost Ark. Other movies filmed here include Six Days Seven Nights, the 2005 remake of King Kong and John Ford's 1963 film Donovan's Reef. Recent films include Tropic Thunder and an upcoming biopic of Bethany Hamilton entitled Soul Surfer. A scene in the opening credits of popular TV show M*A*S*H was filmed in Kauai. (Helicopter flying over mountain top.) Parts of the film Dragonfly were filmed there (although the people and the land were presented as South American) and the producers hired extras (at least three with speaking parts) from the ancient Hawaiʻian native population, which seeks to preserve its cultural heritage, including the pre-USA name of these two islands, Atooi or Tauaʻi.Even if you don’t manage to make it up before the sun does, rest assured you’ll find plenty of other reasons to visit. Over 1.3 millions people did last year alone. Ironically for the world's largest dormant volcano, Haleakala (which means “House of the sun”) is anything but sleepy. Haleakala National Park is, by any measure, enormous. Rising 10,023 feet above the glittering Pacific, Haleakala crater is 3,000 feet deep, 7 1/2 miles long by 2 1/2 miles wide. If you want to journey down to the lunar landscape of the crater you can hike or go by horseback. However you go, just be sure to take plenty of water and sunscreen, the environment is as unforgiving as it is beautiful. For serious adventurers, camping expeditions provide an even greater appreciation for the crater's stark and wondrous environments.
View from Hanalei Valley, Kauai
