HAWAII’S ISLAND OF LANAI : From Pineapples to Glitz : L.A. Financier David Murdock Bought the Island Tourism Forgot and Put Up Two Swank Resorts He Hopes Everyone Will Remember

As the hotel van reached the upcountry Lodge at Koele, Paul Raybould stood on the steps, resplendent in his double-breasted suit, a silk tie (London label) knotted at the starched collar of his formal white shirt.

Bowing slightly and speaking with a British accent, he greeted one of the arriving guests. “I am your butler,” he told the lady politely. Then, leading her through the lobby, he inquired: “Would madam care for afternoon tea?”

Classical melodies poured through the cavernous room where waiters in dark trousers and neat bow ties delivered finger sandwiches to guests seated at a scattering of sofas. Silver service graced coffee tables and the room hummed with conversation. One wondered: Could Princess Di possibly be holding court--or might Prince Charlie be sipping a brandy in the bar?

Until recently, this was the Hawaiian island that tourism had ignored. Oahu was off and running in the ‘50s, followed by Maui in the ‘60s and Kauai and the Big Island in the ‘70s. (Molokai still sleeps.)

For years, Lanai slumbered in the warm Hawaiian sun. No one hurried. It made no sense. There was no place to hurry to. Not on an island without even one T-shirt shop or supermarket--and only a single bar. Lanai has been an island lost in time.

It wasn’t until Los Angeles financier and developer David Murdock slogged ashore that things began to stir. Murdock now owns 98% of Lanai after merging his own L.A.-based firm with Castle & Cooke, one of Hawaii’s world-renowned Big Five companies. And so with a wave of his wallet, the entrepreneur has been transforming Hawaii’s 139-square-mile pineapple island into what he hopes will be the state’s hottest new tourist destination. Besides the plantation-style Lodge at Koele, which opened in April, 1990, Murdock this May unveiled the new Mediterranean-style Manele Bay Hotel overlooking Hulopoe Beach at the southern end of Lanai. Both hotels are operated for Murdock by Rockresorts, which manages such prestigious resorts as Caneel Bay and Little Dix in the U.S. and British Virgin Islands.

Even with its formalities, it is difficult to fault the 102-room Lodge at Koele. Eight miles from the ocean, the lodge rises in the island’s cool and misty highlands, 1,200 feet above sea level. Axis deer roam through stands of Norfolk pine, and guests play a new18-hole golf course edged with lush foliage. A rare retreat, The Lodge at Koele features the tastefully furnished Great Hall with its floor-to-ceiling fireplaces; windows frame an English garden with sculpted hedges, and fountains spill beside a reflecting pond that mirrors Hawaii’s peaceful heavens.

Low-rise frame buildings blend harmoniously with Lanai’s plantationlike image; four-poster beds grace guest rooms, and antiques line Koele’s hallways. From the veranda, guests take in sunsets and focus on rows of pine trees lining a country lane that leads to the hotel entrance. Recitals are conducted in the Great Hall, and a pianist plays nostalgic melodies for the after-dinner crowd.

Hardly the picture of the little grass shack, The Lodge at Koele appears as some imposing relic from the lost days of Hawaii’s monarchy. It is Old World and infectious--and more than a trifle sophisticated.

Christine Limerick, who served the Carter and Reagan administrations at the White House as chief housekeeper, was recruited to brief the housekeeping staff, as was the founder of the prestigious London School of Butlers, Leslie Bartlet. With Bartlet’s return to Britain, Paul Raybould, a third-generation butler from Surrey, supervises the graduates. Raybould has been called upon to provide picnic flights by helicopter to deserted beaches. And only recently, actor Kevin Costner requested dinner delivered to the remote Garden of the Gods, a stark, desertlike plateau covered with eerie rock formations in northwest Lanai.

The butlers, mostly island lads (including a former hula dancer from Maui), draw one’s bath, prepare one’s clothing, polish one’s shoes and deliver morning tea and newspapers to their assigned suites. Other guests in regular rooms make do with The Lodge’s daily maid service.

Besides golf, vacationers at Koele play tennis and croquet, stroll through acres of gardens and trip off to Shipwreck Beach on the island’s northern shore, where a World War II freighter is awash in the waves. Back at The Lodge--beyond the reflecting pond--an ornamental glass greenhouse (imported from Britain) faces Koele’s lawn bowling crowd.

Because this is upcountry Lanai, the idea is to experience another Hawaii--to explore the island’s rugged terrain by horseback and Jeep, giving chase to wild turkeys and searching for peaks lost in clouds. It is a strange and wild and wonderful land that fills the mind and soul with images and scenes reminiscent of pre-jet Hawaii.

In the mountains above Koele, Lanai is moody and lonely, with immense stretches of emptiness framed by the horizon. On a Jeep tour of the highlands, where wild goats live, birds wheel overhead, riding the thermals. The mournful wail of the wind screams into canyons, numbing and chilling.

Guests of The Lodge at Koele who wish to swim and sunbathe hop the hotel’s hourly shuttle bus for a 15-minute ride to the Manele Bay Hotel, which sits on a bluff overlooking Hulopoe Beach. It is here that vacationers snorkel and body surf and paddle about a natural lava pool while dolphins circle curiously, then disappear with the receding tide.

Guest rooms at Manele Bay face man-made waterfalls that spill over man-made lava into man-made ponds. (Imagine, man-made lava on an island that evolved from the real stuff?)

Lush gardens tended by a dude from Brooklyn nicknamed Rambo are brilliant with tropical ginger blooms. As clouds move toward the horizon, the hot sun glints off blue tile roofs and guests gather at a pool facing the ocean.

Manele’s two-story stucco buildings contain 250 guest rooms and suites, the cheapest (the garden variety) going for $295 a day. As at Koele, guest suites are served by butlers, the rates starting at $500 a day. One need only ring and the chap appears--as if in a tropical production of “Upstairs, Downstairs.”

Nothing, though, can detract from the sunrises at Manele--or sunsets that turn evenings aflame, or rainbows that arc above the earth. These blessings remain--as do the trade winds that bathe Lanai, along with showers that turn the island an incredible green. Beyond the beach at Manele, waves pour over a lava wall, drenching a cove and a beach that beckons to the couple wishing to be alone.

The scene at Manele, particularly at sunset, is a poem composed of color and beauty and peace. Yachts and outriggers put in from Maui, bringing sailors and vacationers seeking escape from the action at Lahaina and Kihei.

On Lanai, one can be alone on a deserted beach, or else lose oneself in valleys like those on Bora-Bora. There are locals who have not set foot off their island once in their entire lives. To them, a trip to Honolulu would compare with a mainlander jetting off to London . . . or Paris, perhaps.

Locals still gather Sundays on the beach at Hulopoe Bay, setting up barbecues and snorkeling and swimming. Others sail over from Maui, returning at sunset.

Still, Lanai isn’t for everyone. Some visitors hurry back to Waikiki, seeking more action. For others, the island is a drug. Winding up their vacation one recent morning, Bob and Denise Bell of Orange, Calif., remarked to the receptionist at Manele Bay: “We’re coming back . . . it’s difficult to leave. . . .”

Despite the new attention, Lanai remains as gentle as the trade winds. Chickens continue to run free and streams--sweet and pure--pour from the mountains.

Before Murdock got out his checkbook--he spent $260 million developing the two hotels--Lanai was known as Hawaii’s pineapple island. Seamen who put ashore during the 1800s were followed by missionaries, including Mormons, who left after failing to establish a colony. The Chinese sailed away when sugar failed.

Finally, when James Dole bought the island in 1922, he made pineapple pay. Dole imported laborers from other islands and the Philippines. With 18,000 acres under cultivation, Lanai prospered and become known as “Home to the World’s Largest Pineapple Plantation.” At the height of the harvest, workers labored 24 hours a day. But pineapple prices took a plunge in the 1980s. Alas, it was cheaper to grow in Asia. Thus, with the economy lagging, Murdock decided to turn his plantation into a playground for tourists--with other land devoted to cattle and agriculture.

To date it has been a struggle. Last year, The Lodge at Koele ended the year with only a 15% occupancy rate. As the destination has become more familiar to travelers, the occupancy rate at both Koele and Manele reached 70% recently. One reason often cited for the earlier low occupancy was the few flights--and most of those on smaller planes--to Lanai. Only recently, Aloha began jet service from Honolulu. But even with the current attention being focused on Lanai, the island remains relatively unfamiliar to Hawaii’s vacation hordes. For years, they overflew Lanai en route to Maui.

When Murdock turned to tourism, there wasn’t a single lei stand on Lanai. Not even a bead salesman. Lanai boasted only a ramshackle old movie house (now closed) and the little 10-room Hotel Lanai. Primarily, the hotel catered to businessmen dealing with Dole. They ate fish fresh from the sea and drank Lanai Tais, a pineapple-rum concoction with a kick like a wild island goat.

The little hotel, with its simple rooms and ceiling fans, still reminds me of Mary Pritchard’s funky old Rainmaker Inn that prospered years ago in American Samoa. Like the Rainmaker, the Hotel Lanai is a clapboard old pile with loads of character--but little action. There’s no TV in the guest rooms, and only a single pay telephone. Guests either spin off to the bar or turn in early. And its reasonable rates ($58, tops) make it one of Hawaii’s rare bargains. Besides, few hotels--anywhere on the islands--present a better picture of Hawaii’s languorous early days.

Lanai is an island with no night life, no discos. Those who dig that sort of action hustle back to Honolulu. In the old days, there wasn’t so much as a souped-up motor scooter on the island. Finally, one could rent a Jeep with cannibalized parts. Or else a beat-up old Datsun that often sputtered to a halt before it ever got off the lot. Now Glenn Oshiro displays a fleet of shiny new Jeeps with four-wheel-drive at his service station in Lanai City, the island’s main town. The word “city,” it should be noted, is loosely used to describe half a dozen country groceries, shops and cafes surrounding sleepy Dole Square.

At Richard’s Shopping Center, shelves are loaded with canned squid, bamboo shoots, Oriental noodle soup, beef jerky and sesame oil, along with 25-pound bags of rice. Richard’s also sells clothing and kerosene and stoppers for the kitchen sink.

A sign in front of one store reads: “Hunters, please leave your guns and knives outside.” At Dahang’s, you can buy a hamburger for $1.50, and coffee is 65 cents. Scrawled on a blackboard are the words “Be Happy.” Next door, burgers are even cheaper ($1.25) at Jerry Tanigawa’s grocery-cafe, with its juke box and oil-cloth-covered tables. The highest item on the menu is beef stew with rice, $3.75. By comparison, a fine meal at Koele or Manele could run $80-$120 per couple.

Tanigawa, who hails from the island of Kauai, happily accepts Murdock’s decision to sell this agricultural center as a tourist destination, although not everyone shares his enthusiasm. A plantation mentality still exists among Lanai’s 2,200 residents. For years, their simple tin-roof homes have been subsidized by Castle & Cooke (which changed its name to the more familiar Dole Food Co. just last month). A dispensary provides free medical care.

You’ve heard of the company store? Well, this has been the company island, and many still look to a Big Daddy for security. The new Big Daddy (Murdock) came through a couple of years ago, donating a $3-million recreation center to the town.

In addition, locals play a nine-hole golf course for free, kicking in change to keep beer in the refrigerator. When I stopped by last month, Toshi Aoki and his cronies, Akira Hayashiva and Tamo Takahama, had 17 empties lined up in a row.

With the phasing out of pineapple, jobs are available at the new hotels. Meanwhile, many older workers still don canvas aprons, goggles and leather gloves and labor in Lanai’s hot, dusty pineapple fields.

Once, youngsters left Lanai for Honolulu and the mainland after graduating from high school; jobs outside the pineapple plantation were scarce. Now runaways are returning. Kurt Matsumoto came home after an absence of 15 years to manage The Lodge at Koele. Growing up, he and an associate, Adele Preza, couldn’t wait to leave the island.

“Until The Lodge opened, it never crossed my mind to return,” said Matsumoto.

Coming home he discovered the contentment he’d sought all along had been here on Lanai. It involved the people. “They are honest and sincere and everybody cares for everybody else. In high school I wanted to run away. Later I realized what I was running from was the happiness I had on this island.”

Lanai residents still leave their doors unlocked and keys dangle in the ignitions of cars. Seldom is there a crime. With the island’s laid-back lifestyle, shopkeepers follow a routine of closing for a noon siesta.

Locals fish for ono and mahi-mahi and hunt for pronghorn antelope, axis deer, Gambel’s quail, wild turkey and partridge, goat and ring-tailed pheasant.

Mariano Batoon, who drove a tractor for Dole, works as a bellman at Manele Bay. His wife (who still drives for Dole) moonlights at night in the kitchen at Manele.

As for Murdock, he has up for sale several hundred residential lots that surround the golf course at Koele and another course under construction at Manele Bay; lot prices range from $350,000 up to more than $1 million apiece. In case someone is wondering if a home is included, the answer is no. That costs the buyer another bundle.

If tourism is spurred on as Murdock intends, vacationers desiring to experience Lanai before crowds arrive had best hurry. What with 80 flights a week already touching down, one wonders, can McDonald’s be far behind?

GUIDEBOOK: Lanai, Hawaii

Getting there: Aloha Island Airlines, Aloha Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines and Air Molokai provide 80 flights per week from Honolulu to Lanai City for as low as about $130 round trip, if purchased separately. You may purchase a “thru fare” with Hawaiian Airlines to Lanai for as low as only about $40 over a Honolulu ticket.

Where to stay:

--The Lodge at Keole, P.O. Box 774, Lanai, Hawaii 96763, (800) 321-4666. Rates, $275-$350 (suites from $425), not including meals.

--The Manele Bay Hotel, P.O. Box 774, Lanai 96763, (800) 321-4666. Rates, $295-$405 (suites from $500), not including meals.

--Hotel Lanai, P.O. Box A-119, Lanai 96763, (800) 624-8849. Rates, $51-$58.

--Bed and breakfasts: For a listing, write P.O. Box 9, Lanai 96763.

Car Rentals:

Oshiro’s Tropical Rent-a-Car & Service Station, P.O. Box 516, Lanai 96763, (800) 352-3923. Also, Dollar Rent A Car, P.O. Box N, Lanai 96763, (808) 565-7227. Both charge about $100 a day for new four-wheel-drive vehicles, automatic with air conditioning and unlimited mileage. With less than 30 miles of paved road on the island, four-wheel-drive is the conveyance of choice. Sightseeing:

--Manele and Hulopoe bays for Hawaii’s best snorkeling/scuba diving.

--Lanai City, a charming 1920s plantation town featuring a park, recreation center, cafes, shops.

--Shipwreck Beach (northern end of the island), with miles of wild, wind-whipped strand and a wrecked Liberty ship swept ashore in a storm.

--The Garden of the Gods, with its stunning desertlike colors.

--Mt. Lanaihale, 3,370 feet, with views of Maui, Molokai, the Big Island and Oahu. A two-hour Jeep trip from Lanai City via the Munro Trail.