Kualoa Ranch

The last venue I have to post is Kualoa Ranch.  This is also the last venue we toured and it also happens to be the venue we like the most.  We are deciding between this location and Waimea Valley.  They are both beautiful and Waimea Valley is less expensive and would be less work, but we were more wowed by Kualoa on our site tour. Kualoa is a 4,000 acre working cattle ranch which offers educational and recreational activities as well as a location for filming television and movies.

The reasons we like this location are its beauty, the option to use on-site or off-site catering, it is very private and intimate (Charles described it as cozy), the variety of locations (garden, fish-pond, mountains, beach), the location rental is 12 hours, and Jurassic Park was filmed here (one of Charles' all time favorite movies).

The main drawbacks to this location are: there is no coordinator on-site, we would need to rent tables and chairs and plates and everything, and it is muggier and hotter than Waimea Valley because it is right on the water.

There are several reception/ceremony spaces, but the location we would choose is Hale Moli'i.

 Hale Moli'i is located on the 800-year old fish pond and from the venue, you can see the Southern portion of the Koolau Mountains that run along the East side of O'ahu.  The location is comprised of the lawn, which goes right up to the edge of the fish pond, the surrounding gardens, which contain many tropical plants as well as coconut and monkey pod trees, and a building with a staging area, kitchen and bathrooms.  You can actually see this building in several episodes of the show "Lost."  The images below show the view out from the building to the fish pond.

The huge monkey pod tree next to the building is really the focal point of this location. It is really awesome.  When we were on our site tour, the event coordinator told us everyone who books this location is in love with the tree, and I think we just might be too.





 
 

 One option for this site is to take a boat ride across the fish pond and have a ceremony on the Secret Island. The boat ride was my favorite part of the tour.  As you are crossing the pond you get another stunning view of the Koolau Mountains. It is breathtaking!

 After you disembark on the other side of the pond, you walk through this really cool area full of crazy trunks and branches before you emerge on the beach of the Secret Island.

The sand is white, the ocean is calm, clear and blue.  The palm fronds sway gently in the breeze and you can see Mokolii Island just off shore. You can see the Koolau Mountains from the beach as well.