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Welcome to Stuff I Learned Yesterday. My name is Darrell Darnell, last week I swam in the ocean for the first time, and I believe that if you aren’t learning, you aren’t living. In today’s episode of Stuff I Learned Yesterday I share observations from my recent trip to Oahu.
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What I Learned Yesterday:
In the early morning hours of September 16 my family and I boarded a plane that would take us to an airport that would take us to another airport that would take us to a plane that would take us to Oahu. 17 hours after we woke up, we were in the sun drenched beauty of the Aloha state.
We knew the final leg of our trip, which was Denver to Honolulu, would be a long one, but it was even longer than we imagined. But my son and I had a great time watching some movies and some Classic Doctor Who. My wife and I even watched the final episode of LOST.
We spent the next 10 days basking on beaches, taking pictures of the beauty of God’s creation, hanging out with friends, and relaxing. Our third day on Oahu called for a trip up Diamond Head. I’ll tell you more about that trip tomorrow.
Today I want to tell you about what we did on Monday, September 22nd. On the day of the 10th anniversary of the premiere of LOST we took a chartered tour around Oahu to see several of the locations where they filmed the show. We boarded the charter bus at the Hilton Waikiki and made our way to Interstate Highway H1. After a few miles we turned on to Likelike Highway.
Our tour guide explained that we were entering into a different section of the island. Waikiki is located in the south part of the island and its climate is different than other parts of the island. This seemed a bit odd considering that the island is only 44 miles long and 30 miles wide at the furthest points. That’s roughly the same size at the Oklahoma City metro area that I live in. Of course there are a lot of differences in topography in Oklahoma City and Oahu.
After we’d traveled a few miles on Likelike Highway we came to the John H. Wilson Tunnel which carves a path right through the Ko’olau Mountains. As we emerged from the tunnel we suddenly found ourselves on the windward side of the island and it was like a whole new world. The Ko’olau Mountains towered to our left. Their peaks were cloaked in clouds and the sides were shrouded in lush green trees and other flora. At the same time and without any prompting, the entire bus gasped at the majestic beauty that surrounded us. To our right we could see Kane’ohe Bay and the city of Kane’ohe below us. It was truly breathtaking.
There was so much to take in that it was overwhelming. If I looked to my left I was greeted with the mountains, clouds, thick foliage, and great views from top to bottom. Each time the bus turned or even as we progressed forward, new views were revealed and they seemed more beautiful than the ones just before them. However, if I only looked to my left, then I missed out on the views to my right. The distant ocean, sprinkles of small island, the flourishing city nestled in the outline of the bay, and the activity on the waters were all fascinating.
The more I looked, the more I noticed. Soon I noticed some things that didn’t seem to belong, but I found them to be awe inspiring nonetheless. There in the middle of the view were power cables, put there by man, and strung from the bay to the peak of the mountains, and beyond.
We continued along the coast for a bit longer before arriving to to Kualoah Ranch. There we learned the history of the ranch and saw many more amazing things. We saw the remains of the original sugar mill that had been hand built out of lava rocks. We saw several bunkers that dated back to WWII. We saw more breathtaking mountain views. The ones that you’ve seen in movies like Jurassic Park, Godzilla, 50 First Dates, Mighty Joe Young, and, of course, the TV Show, LOST.
We finished up the tour by seeing the temple where Jin and Sun got married, Anthony Cooper’s house, the bamboo forest where Jack began and ended his journey on the island, and the banyan trees where Kate hid from the smoke monster. Surprisingly, those banyan trees are right off the road, maybe 10 feet, probably less than that.
The bamboo forest, banyan tree, and Anthony Cooper’s house are all found along the same small road. The crew of LOST used that road often as it was filled with thick jungle scenery and easy to access.
Here’s what I learned.
I was amazed by so many things that day. The views were amazing as you can imagine. I would like to think that I would never get used to or take those views for granted if I lived there. I can tell why they chose to film LOST there. It has so many different types of scenery. It has major and modern metropolitan architecture, a vast amount of asian architecture, farmlands like you’d see in the midwest, thick jungles, majestic mountains, and anything else you can imagine.
I think what impressed me most that day was not the beauty of the mountains, valleys, bays, or islands. Those things left me the most amazed. What impressed me the most was reflecting on the strength, willpower, fortitude, and vision that it took to simply make the tour possible.
Think about these things with me. We drove down a highway at 70 miles per hour through what was once thick jungle. We then drove through what was once a mountain that had to be circumnavigated or painfully and slowly climbed over. We drove right through it in a matter of seconds. We did that because someone had the vision and ability to lead a team that crafted tunnels through the mountain.
We had access to plumbing and electricity everywhere we went. The Ko’olau Mountains are over 3,000 feet (940 meters) tall. I have no idea how they managed to string electric cables across the mountains, but I bet it was impressive to watch them do it. The road that LOST used to film jungle scenes was truly cut right through thick jungle. But it wasn’t just a road that was cut through the jungle, several houses were also there.
What was it that allowed men and women to carve roads into jungle, dig tunnels through mountains, string wires across those mountains, or build sugar mills out of lava rocks?
Were they special? Did they possess something that you and I don’t have? I don’t believe they did. Maybe they were more determined, more focused, more stubborn, or more resilient than some of us, but to leave it at that would be to leave it too short.
You see, we all possess strength, vision, fortitude, determination, and tenacity. The difference is often in where we limit ourselves. Do you think they faced obstacles along the way? Do you think that in taming the island they encountered unforeseen roadblocks? What if they’d quit? None of us would be reaping the benefit now.
So don’t give up. Let the hard work and accomplishment of others serve to inspire you to keep going, push yourself to new limits, reach new heights, dig deeper than you’ve ever dug before, and accomplish things that were once only visions in your head.
I’m Darrell Darnell and this has been stuff I learned yesterday.
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