Paradise P I N E A P P L E
The pool at the Four Season’s Manele Bay.
With only 30 miles of paved road, no traffic lights and 100 miles of walking trails, exclusive Lana’i has been a destination of choice during the last two decades of the well-heeled who love this tropical landscape, modified over the years by cattle farming and agriculture. Bill Gates was married here at the luxurious beachside Four Season’s Manele Bay Resort and, according to staff, returns to vacation regularly, though not necessarily buying every room on the island as he did during his wedding. The history of the island is as eccentric as the aura of the land itself, within a 45-minute ferry distance of both Maui and Molokai. Because all of Hawaii’s beaches are public property, some people come for the day to enjoy the expanse of seaside sand downwind from the imposing Manele Bay perched cliff-side with a gasp-inspiring view of Maui, just miles away. TRAVELWORLD MAGAZINE / 09.4 SEPT.OCT
However, the sparsely inhabited island wasn’t always welcoming to humans. Prior to the 15th century, Lana’i was believed to be controlled by maneating evil spirits, and few people survived in this hostile place. Then, in the 1600s, things changed. Maui prince Kaula’au was banished to this island by his father, and he is credited as driving the evil away, making room for human habitation—and eventually a series of diverse capitalist ventures in the 20th century. Formally the largest pineapple plantation in the world, thanks to James Dole who bought the island in 1922, Lana’i has undergone a few reinventions in recent history. Though the Dole Food Company’s presence is still evident in the naming of parks, existence of residential row houses originally built for plantation workers in Lana’i City (a half-hour shuttle ride from Manele Bay) and presence of Filipino
and Chinese descendants of those who immigrated here to work in the orchards, there’s a new chief in town. Today, Lana’i is 97 percent privately owned by David Murdoch, who acquired the island by purchasing Castle & Cooke in 1985. The pineapple industry, no longer profitable thanks to cheaper foreign imports, was phased out in the 1990s, replaced by Hawaii’s economic engine of choice: tourism. Or in this case, luxury destination travel. There are only three accommodation options on the island: Manele Bay and Lodge at Ko’ele, both extravagant upscale resorts managed by the Four Seasons, and one humble but authentic Hotel Lana’i in the center of the small downtown, home to a sampling of galleries and eateries. The hotel is an 11-room country inn originally built in 1923 to house executives of the Dole Corporation. Now, it’s primarily used by Hawaiian residents visiting the is-