What’s new: Island-by-island look at latest in Hawaii
The cost is $1.50 per vehicle, payable via www.recreation.gov up to 60 days in advance; the receipt and photo ID must be presented to enter the area between 3 and 7 a.m. The fee is in addition to park admission, which costs $20 per car and is valid for three days. [...] in the park’s Kipahulu district, the tiered pools of Oheo Gulch (nicknamed the “Seven Sacred Pools”) have been closed indefinitely following a rock slide Jan. 3 that prompted concerns of further slides, especially during the typically rainy winter months. Sea Life Park’s new Shark Tank Experience allows novice and experienced divers to swim with the sharks — blacktip and whitetip reef, sandbar and hammerhead varieties — in a 300,000-gallon aquarium. A new viewing platform and walkway sport five interpretive signs sharing detailed stories of Ke Kahua O Kaneioluma (“the Kaneioluma complex”), first mapped in 1959 and including a centuries-old heiau (temple), rock walls, home sites, games arena and fishpond. www.kaneiolouma.com Visitors to the Kohala Coast looking for other evening entertainment will soon be able to see first-run movies in a new cinema with leather seats, cocktails, wood-fired pizza and more. Using an all new Hydra-Terra amphibious tour bus, Big Island Duck Tours (www.bigislandduck.com) takes 40 passengers on a tour/pub quiz that cruises down 7½ miles of Alii Drive, then heads to Honokohau Harbor for an actual cruise past ancient fishponds and a former Hawaiian village. At the Four Seasons Resort Lanai, the eight treatment rooms at the new Hawanawana Spa include four couples’ suites with side-by-side treatment beds, rain showers, and a cozy living and dining area. Given that most guests from the mainland spend hours waiting for connecting flights in Honolulu to Lanai, the resort has opened its own airport lounge, on the second floor of Honolulu’s Overseas Terminal. Guests can check into their room; book dinner, a spa treatment or other activity; and enjoy free Wi-Fi, movies, food and drink, among other amenities. www.fourseasons.com/lanai Book flights and lodging early for popular events such as the Molokai Ka Hula Piko Festival, June 1-3, www.kahulapiko.com, or the Molokai 2 Oahu Paddleboard World Championship, July 30, www.molokai2oahu.com.
