Jaunted

Travel Cat / Hawaii Travel / Animals / Oahu Travel / → All Tags

The Adventures of Travel Cat: Oahu, Hawaii

Kitty cats. They rule the internet and, whether we realize it or not, pretty much the world too. Ever noticed how cats sometimes stake out the coolest spots in a city? This new feature—Travel Cat—focuses on exactly that. Submit a photo to be featured by tweeting or Instagramming it to us (details below).

Travel Cat spotted in: Lanikai, Oahu, Hawaii

This week's Travel Cat comes from reader Mark Bailey, who says of this chill feline:

A fine friendly cat showed up at our rental in Lanikai, Oahu and lightened the morning. She loved her belly rubbed and had the silkiest fur but sadly, she has yet to return.

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Movie Set Travel / Hawaii Travel / Journey 2 Mysterious Island / Movie Travel / → All Tags

Take a 'Journey 2' Hawaii's Kualoa Ranch

This weekend the family friendly 3D sequel to the 2008 hit Journey to the Center of the Earth heads into theaters. Journey 2: The Mysterious Island centers around Sean Anderson (Josh Hutcherson), who receives a message from his long-lost grandfather Alexander Anderson (Michael Caine) from a fabled Mysterious Island. Sean decides to find the island but has to take along his stepfather, Hank (Dwayne Johnson), their pilot Gabato (Luis Guzmán), and his strong-willed daughter Kailani (Vanessa Hudgens) on this journey of a lifetime.

The movie's plot might not sound too original, but its locations make up for it. Journey 2 was filmed in Oahu, Hawaii, around the Waimea Valley and Kualoa Ranch.

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Movie Set Travel / Surf Travel / Celeb Travel / Hawaii Travel / → All Tags

The North Shore of Hawaii Taken Over for Teen Surfer Movie

You might remember the story of Bethany Hamilton, the teen who lost her arm in a shark attack off the shores of Tunnels Beach, Kauai in 2003 and was back in the water just 3 weeks later. Now, Bethany's inspiring story is being made into a movie starring AnnaSophia Robb, Dennis Quaid and Helen Hunt.

The cast and crew began filming two weeks ago and have been spending most of the shoot on Oahu's North Shore. On Wednesday, the cast was spotted filming scenes at Sunset Beach, off of Route 83. There are four other popular beaches along the North Shore, Ehukai (The Banzai Pipeline) Beach Park, KeWa`ena Beach, Waimea Bay Beach Park, and Ali`i Beach Park. Winter is the best time for surfers along the North Shore because the waves are at their highest, reaching 15- 20 feet on average. All of the beaches are free and open to the public, but on a good surfing day, you may have trouble finding a parking spot!

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Obama-Around-The-World / Presidential Travel / Barack Obama / Hawaii Travel / Northwest Flight 253 / → All Tags

Obama Says 'Mele Kalikimaka' From His Holidays In Hawaii

You know what we love most about Christmastime? The fact that most of the country gets to enjoy a long weekend, including the president and his family. On Christmas Even, President Obama, Michelle, and his two daughters hopped Air Force One to Hawaii for their traditional holiday family vacation.

Since they come to Hawaii every year, they don't go about doing the touristy sightseeing anymore, but instead hole up in a rented vacation home in Kailua on Oahu, conveniently neighboring an Air Force base. He plays golf, he plays basketball, and he swims at one of Hawaii's highest rated beaches.

But he is not to be completely envied, since he is the President of the United States after all, and duty calls even when he's on a much-needed island vacation. The news of the attempted terrorist incident onboard Northwest Flight 253 kept Obama chained to his desk for most of Christmas day as he upped the security threat level to orange and issued reviews of security procedure and of the terrorist watch list. We hope, for everyone's sake, that the rest of his vacation will be uneventful.

Related Stories:
· Obamas in Hawaii: First Family Arrives In Oahu for Vacation [HuffPost]
· News interrupts Obama's Hawaii vacation [CBS News]
· Presidential Travel [Jaunted]

[Photo: Huffington Post]

LOST / Lost-Season-5 / Television Travel / TV Travel / → All Tags

Chasing 'Lost' Season 5: Follow The Leader

Just where in the world is LOST? Each episode, we're looking at the real and fictional locations of LOST from a travel perspective, and plotting them on our Google map. Be sure to check out all the map points, updated weekly!

This week, we get lots of action and less head scratching. We're finally getting some answers, kinda. Last episode, Eloise shot her son, Daniel Faraday, not knowing that he was her son and also from the future. Jack and Kate get dragged into camp, and try to explain their preposterous story -- which Eloise believes. Richard Alpert busies himself at the top of the episode by building a model ship in a bottle. Since we know you've been dying to learn the secrets of building unlikely things inside bottles, you may want to check out eHow's step by step explanation of how to make the magic happen.

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Hawaii / → All Tags

Hummer Tours in Hawaii: Good for Fat Tony, Not Good for Environment

Calling all guidos in the tri-state area. Thinking about taking a trip to Hawaii but are too afraid to travel without your Hummer? Then put the Drakkar Noir down, Hollywood Movie Tour and Island Tours in Oahu has solved your problems.

You can vacation in Hawaii and see all the sites from the comfort and safety of a 2003 white H2 Hummer. Check out what their off-road tour has to offer:

Hummer Tours offers exclusive OFF-ROAD access to private lush valleys and exotic film locations at historical Kualoa Ranch. This exciting, one of a kind adventure maneuvers through isolated stream beds, muscles up hills and tackles rough terrain. Explore historical sites and the home of such films as JURRASSIC PARK, WINDTALKERS, TEARS OF THE SUN and others. To complete your journey, take a short hike to the summit of the K'olau Mountain range for breathtaking panoramic views.

Because, really, what better way to see Hawaiii then by trampling all over lush valleys and wildlife in a Hummer?

And some wonder why the Hawaiians hate the Haoles.

Lost / Television Travel / Surfing / Hawaii Travel / → All Tags

Lost Surf Couple More Adventurous Off Screen

Yes, we are still talking Lost, but barely.

The Lost season premiere was a total bummer, wasn't it? Seriously, this show is so close to going X-Files. We are not-so-anxiously awaiting JJ Abrams announcement of a feature length Lost movie. Despite our disappointment, we are going to give the show another shot tonight, we just have too much invested in it to give up on season three so soon, but a couple more weeks of Days of our Lives style episodes and we are done.

In the meantime, thankfully, Dominic Monaghan and Evangeline Lilly's real life Hawaiian beach adventures look much more interesting than their lives on the show. The duo hangs out at Mokuleia Beach Park, a twelve-acre beach park complete with restrooms, showers, camping sites, parking, and plenty of surfing. Thing is the surf here can be down right dangerous.

High surf generates dangerous water conditions, including powerful shorebreaks, longshore currents, rip currents, and backwashes sweeping across the foreshore. The high surf season normally occurs during the winter and spring months, beginning in October and ending in May. There are no lifeguards anywhere along the beach.

Seriously, these two should mix in a visit to the North Shore Surf Museum or something to ratchet down the danger factor. Then again, maybe the danger excites them. Ah, who are we kidding these photos are all posed right? JJ Abrams probably set up these shots himself to deflect from his obvious case of writers block.

[Photo: PopSugar]

Related Stories:
· Lost Coverage [Jaunted]

Lost / Television Travel / → All Tags

Lost Locations Revealed

Mokuleia's Army Beach @ 21.581945, -158.206387 on Yahoo Maps

Tonight Lost kicks off the season that will ultimately determine whether the television drama is solvable, or becomes a convoluted parody of itself (um, X-Files?).

While we prepare to put on our thinking caps for tonight's episode, we figured we would deal in the much more tangible world of satellite photography.

By now everyone knows lost is filmed on and around Mokuleia Beach, and the main beach site is between Army Beach and Tiger Point, which we found on Yahoo Maps (above). However, Lost Virtual Tour takes it a step further, providing locations and accompanying show photos for almost every Lost location known to Dharma.

Related Stories:
· Lost Locations [lostvirtualtour.com]
· Lost Coverage [Jaunted]

Television / → All Tags

Lost on Location

We're not sure that there are as many people who actually want to be part of Lost as SF Chron writer Jeanne Cooper thinks there are, but visiting a few of the Oahu locations does sound fun. It's not just green stuff and waterfalls: you can also find the Hawaii stand-ins for Sydney, Seoul, California, Australia, and elsewhere.

Related Stories:
·   'Lost' and found for island visitors [SF Chron]
·   Eva and Dom Lost on Oahu Beach [Jaunted]

Celeb Travel / Hawaii / Beaches / Lost / → All Tags

Evangeline Lilly & Dominic Monaghan Lost on Oahu Beach

By now we all know that Lost is filmed in the somewhere in Oahu's Kaaawa Valley region, mostly on and around Mokuleia Beach.  So it is not surprising to see Evangeline Lilly doing some down-time (doesn't it seem like the show is always in reruns?) February beach frolicking, with her fiancee Dominic Monaghan. But who exactly is the pink-shirted beach walker?  Is she taking Ana-Lucia's place?

Related Stories:
· Mokuleia Beach Info [TripAdvisor]
· TV castaways put Oahu on the map [Knight-Ridder]

Travel Suggestions / → All Tags

Hit the Pipeline Masters

If the onset of winter is starting to freak you out a little bit, don't fret. Head to the north shore of Oahu and re-live your "Blue Crush" fantasies. From Dec. 8-20th the Rip Curl Pro Pipeline Masters , the final competition in the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing and of the Association of Surfing Professionals World Championship Tour is taking place.

The Banzai pipeline is one of the most impressive wave centers on earth, and the kings of surf will compete against each other on the last four days to determine who gets the crown. The contests start each day at 8 am--just show up at the beach and snag a piece of sand. The winner of the event rakes in $270,000 and sponsorships galore.

The pipeline is about a 35-mile drive from Honolulu.

Related Stories:
·   Datebook: Hawaii [NY Times]