the lost islands of Hawaii (or sorta)

so my next assignment brought me to Hawaii. Because the subject was "royal Hawaii" for a (ahem) bridal magazine, I had to trace the history of hawaiian royalty and incorporate it into cool and "luxurious" activities found on the islands today. This brought me to only three islands with the majority of royal history: kauai, molokai and oahu.

kauai is voted one of the world's best islands by all the top travel mags. and it's pretty fucking true. it's gorgeous. beaches are so sublime you think of the band and wonder how the fuck they got that name. in any case, i stayed at the princeville resort (which is shutting down next month to upgrade to a st regis by april).

this was my $1,200 a night suite. why???


lovely beach i never frolicked on..

but i did rent a convertible. how cool am i? Only to learn, after driving for about 10 minutes, EVERYBODY RENTS A FUCKING CONVERTIBLE.

these were my favorite summer boys

i took a private helicopter tour of the island and because they don't allow journalists to take their own photos, here's another lovely view from princeville...

there's a ton of beaches here, and i found the best one (not on tourist maps)

the beaches, i found, have pretty strong waves, but that's fine with me ! i love the beach!

I took a hopper to Molokai, the most "hawaiian" of the islands. they weren't fucking kidding. it's a throwback to retro, a walk in the sixties, the "real" hawaii. . . but it's also b uh . b. . buuuh... buu buh buh boooring!! gorgeous yes, but there are two bars, two gas stations, no streetlights, one hotel and a bunch of mules. oh and this gorgeous coconut grove.

i found another beach not on maps.

mule riding is the number one activity here.


here's the phallic rock. really. the phallic rock, a major highlight on the islands.

of course i had to ride it...

off to oahu tomorrow... until next time!