Oahu’s Dole Plantation
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When you hear the word plantation, what comes to mind?
Actually, don’t answer that. I’ll just get on with the post.
So, during my time in Oahu, I decided to visit the HAPPIEST PLACE ON EARTH (and while I did *accidentally* sneak into the Disney Resort, this isn’t about that). THE DOLE PLANTATION!
The Dole Plantation was founded by James Dole, who later became known as The Pineapple King. (cuddle up everyone, time for a mini history lesson). James Dole’s family was from Boston, Massachuettes, and aftah he pahked his cah in tha hahvahd yahd and got his B.S. in agriculture, he saved a whopping $16k and moved to Hawaii to start his own business on his newly purchased 64-acre homestead. Must’ve been nice.
As it turned out, Dole was like, REALLY good a growing pineapples, and after the yields and popularity of his crop grew, he invested in a new revolutionary machine to pick and peal pineapples. Momentarily glazing over the whole colonial aspect of Hawaii and the overthrow of their Queen, Dole even convinced his family to invest in the business so he could buy AN ENTIRE ISLAND (Lana’i) so he could develop a bigger pineapple plantation (the largest in the world!) and produce 75% of the world’s pineapples. Rightfully so, the island became known as Pineapple Island. Oh, and just because he could, Dole bought the island of Maui.
So casual.
The tourist attraction of the Dole Plantation, the part now visited by hundreds of people a day, is located in Wahiawa on Oahu. If you’re not staying on Oahu, the first step to get there is to get on a plane and get to Oahu. Once the hard expensive part is over, the second step is getting to Wahiawa. There’s a couple of ways to do this: 1) if you’re staying at a resort, chances are you can book your trip to the Dole Plantation right at the resort and they’ll have a tour bus to take you. 2) if you’re staying near a resort, you could probablyyy do the same thing. 3) rent a car! Parking is free! of course, if you are under 25 like I am, then you can… 4) ride a bus, catch an uber, or borrow someone else’s car (what I did).
When you get to the Plantation, you are going to be overwhelmed by all the pineapples. It’s like. Insane. The giant building in the front is literally all just a gift shop, so you’re going to want to head outside (to the right of the building) for all of the activities. As for activities, there is a Pineapple Express Train Tour, the Garden Tour, a Garden Maze, and of course the food bar. That’s an activity, right??
I had scheduled a skydiving jump RIGHT AFTER, so I didn’t have time to do the Garden Tour, but from my understanding it’s just a self-guided stroll around a garden with plants and stuff.
I’m sure it’s great though.
As for the Pineapple Express Train, I really loved it. When you board, they’ll take one of those cheesy pictures of you holding a pineapple, (but it turned out to be super cute actually, I was just too broke to buy it) and then they will load the little train front to back. I was super lucky and I got into the first seat! Woohoo!
The train takes you around part of the plantation, chugging through fields of bananas, avocados, and of course pineapples. While most of the world knows pineapple as “anana” (great job messing that one up, English), the Hawaiian word for pineapple is “halakahiki,” which means “foreign fruit.” It is believed -aka best scientific guess- that pineapples originated in Brazil or Paraguay, but arrived to the big island of Hawaii in the early 1500s via trade ships.
There were tons of other crops as well! I learned that there is such a thing as a Koa tree, though I haven’t looked up what it is yet. There are also cocao trees on the plantation, as well as a huge water reserve!
We learned a lot about the import of foreign workers to keep up with pineapple demands and the hard labor the workers had to endure. Even today, every single pineapple is planted by hand! I’m surprised there isn’t an app for that yet. I could go on and on about all the knowledge they dropped on that train, but I’ll let you experience it yourself.
After the train, I headed over to the Pineapple Maze, which turned out to be THE BIGGEST MAZE IN THE WORLD. There’s even a list for the record time to beat and everything, but **spoiler alert** I didn’t beat it. You get an index card with a mini map and a quest to find all the little pit stops on the map. Each stop has a little fact of history and a strange misshapen icon to stencil onto your map.
Try not to die.
The “Grille” is also an exciting part of the Plantation. They have…well, a lot of pineapple themed food items. I mean, since you’re already here, you gotta try the Dole Whip. Also, I’d recommend just getting some fresh pineapple. It’s delicious! I tried a Dole Whip slush thing (pictured below) and it was really good! A bit of a pineapple overload and I had a massive sugar high (then crash), but still good. I also tried the pineapple chili dog, but it didn’t look as good on camera, haha.
Before I left, I checked out the gift shop. They had a few local vendors, which was awesome, and I spoke to a woman who made Plumeria flower hair pieces. She was literally the cutest, and she said I looked pretty in my license photo because I had bangs (the easiest way to my heart). I also liked that I was supporting local vendors, even if it was just $5 worth of flower clips. She taught me the most valuable lesson I learned on Oahu: flower on the left side, married, flower on the right side, single. Let me know if I got that wrong, I don’t want to let her down.
And that’s basically it for my experience at the Dole Plantation! Overall, I liked it, and it made me curious and want to learn more about Hawaiian agriculture and the history of western “influence” on Hawaiian exports.
Have you guys ever been to the Dole Plantation? What did you think about the activities?? What do you think about Hawaiian pineapples in general? Let me know in the comments below!
