In the here and now, the islands of then

HAWAII was calling, as it often does when my agenda is R&R.; I was seeking Hawaii without glitz -- no beachfront hotels with pools the size of oceans, torch-lighted hula shows and $12 mai tais. It’s still doable, even as some Hawaiian places veer dangerously close to becoming like the places visitors come here to escape.

My quest took me to Kauai, where I was salted and kneaded by practitioners of Hawaiian massage; to Oahu, where I took a history tour of Waikiki (yes, Waikiki has history); and to the Big Island, where I rode a mule over upland cattle country and tasted coffee beans right off the tree.

I love Hawaii and don’t buy into the why-go-to-Hawaii-when-you-live-in Southern California philosophy. Hawaii is different, and not just because the water’s warm. Here, I shed my cares along with my shoes and happily while away hours doing the simplest things.

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Kauai

I flew into Lihue, Kauai, just in time to keep my appointment at Angeline’s Muolaulani, an open-air temple of a kind of Hawaiian massage known as lomi lomi. It’s tucked away off a dirt road at Anahola, about 12 miles from the airport.

Masseuse Norma Jean, a transplanted Ohioan, directed me to the unisex changing room to don a sarong, then led me to an octagonal wooden super-sauna. The steam was as thick as fog, and in minutes I was dripping wet and calling Norma Jean, who exfoliated me with Hawaiian sea salt so the warm massage oils could penetrate. It was like being scrubbed with sandpaper, and I was delighted when she announced, “You’re salted” and sent me to the outdoor shower to de-salt.

I was led to the massage table, where Lise joined us. (Lomi lomi may involve more than one practitioner.) A tropical breeze wafted through. Norma Jean, making strange exhaling noises --something about energy flow -- was doing my upper body, Lise working the lower. It was a bit disconcerting: Lise bent my right leg as Norma Jean bent my left arm.

The cost: $140 for two hours. The verdict: Didn’t love the salt scrub, but the massage was top-tier. (If you want to give it a try, the reservation number is [808] 822-3235.)

I did feel relaxed as I checked into TuTu’s Cottage, a little rental house near the beach at Hanalei. Settling in, I phoned Alton Kanter, a friend of a friend who years ago gave up dentistry and moved from L.A. to Kauai, where he is a holistic health educator.

I told him I wanted to see some quiet places, and he suggested we drive to Kalihiwai Beach on the North Shore. There, we found a peaceful lagoon created by the Kalihiwai River and a beach shaded by ironwood trees. There were no tourists, only a few fishermen.

When I asked about lodgings for visitors who shun five-star hotels, he took me to Hale Honua Lani, a lovely little guesthouse with a knockout view on a bluff above the bay at Kilauea, a North Shore town east of Hanalei. Owners Ken and Chris Carlson invite renters to use the main-house lap pool.

We stopped nearby at North Country Farms, an organic outfit run by ex-New Yorker Lee Roversi, who rents out two island-style wooden cottages. An added perk: Guests are welcome to pick fruits and vegetables.

I next headed for the southwestern town of Hanapepe, founded in the 1800s by Chinese rice farmers. My agenda: Sunday services at Soto Zen Temple Zenshuji, which boasts a century-old Buddhist congregation.

At an ornate altar framed in embroidered purple drapery, a robed monk was furiously beating a big drum.

A woman beckoned me to join the queue of bowing worshippers, but I felt I would be intruding. Later, as I drove away, the monks were emerging, and I was amused to see that the younger one had removed his black robe and now sported surfer shorts and a T-shirt.

I’d booked that night at Waimea Plantation Cottages in western Kauai. Some of the 61 cottages dotted around a lush 37-acre coconut grove once housed workers at the long-closed Waimea Sugar Mill; others had been relocated from other mill camps after Hawaii’s once-dominant sugar industry began its post-World War II decline, beset by labor costs.

My little red cottage, Jose Costales, was named for the worker who had once lived there. It was decidedly funky, with a claw-foot tub, white iron bed, tiny living room and big kitchen. A bit pricey (its current rate is $195 a night), I thought, but it felt like old Hawaii.

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Oahu

I’D scheduled two days on Oahu, wanting to check out recent transformations in Waikiki -- including a five-year, $84-million face-lift that is opening up the fortress-like Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center that for years blocked street-side views of the stately pink Royal Hawaiian Hotel. (Sacrilege!) I had reserved a room at the New Otani Kaimana Beach Hotel at the Diamond Head end, a 15-minute walk from Waikiki. My suite had decidedly dated decor but was fairly priced and had a balcony overlooking the lights of Waikiki. (New Otani’s current high-season rates start at $170.)

I’d arranged to take the Queen’s Tour, a two-hour walking excursion to historic Waikiki sites sponsored by the Native Hawaiian Hospitality Assn., which strives to keep old Hawaii alive and promote authentic visitor experiences. Our guide, 55-year-old native Waianuhea Wilfred AhQuin, eschewed the all’s-perfect-in-paradise speech. He dismissed the word “aloha” as “over-commercialized, overused.” The island tradition of tossing a lei into the ocean to assure one’s return? It began, he suggested, with tourists thinking, “I don’t want to take this garbage home.”

I knew I was going to like him. And he knew his Waikiki and its evolution from farms and fishponds to the playground of Hawaiian royalty to major tourist magnet.

So what does Honolulu offer besides swimming and sunning? Well, there’s downtown, where many tourists never venture. Peter Apo, a Hawaiian musician who is director of culture and education for the association, suggests visitors attend Sunday morning services at Kawaihao Church at Punchbowl and King streets to hear a “great choir” and “see all these Hawaiians decked out in their muumuus and holomuus [long, fitted dresses].” He also recommended visiting the herb and noodle shops of Chinatown (I second that) and the morning market at King and Mauna Kea streets that is “absolutely buzzing” on Saturdays.

As Apo and I were lunching beachside at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, Diamond Head was silhouetted against an impossibly clear blue sky. Apo, who is less than pleased with some “Hawaiian” experiences foisted on visitors, smiled and said, “The one thing we cannot screw up is the weather.”

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Big Island

FLYING to the Big Island, I headed north through the black lava flows on Hawaii 19.

My destination, 43 miles away, was the inland cowboy town of Waimea -- also called Kamuela -- that’s home to the 175,000-acre Parker Ranch. I’d reserved at the Jacaranda Inn, a bed-and-breakfast in a 19th century plantation house that once was the ranch manager’s home.

Once-sleepy Waimea has boomed and, alas, now has traffic lights, fast-food outlets and malls. Still, you have to love a cowboy town where stop signs read “WHOA.” It’s just 10 miles in from the Kohala Coast and its luxe resorts, and it’s become a dining destination with two fine restaurants -- Merriman’s and Daniel Thiebaut -- where I ate very well.

Excitement, Waimea style, might be a wagon or horseback ride around Parker Ranch.

Puuopelu, the 19th century ranch house, is worth a visit; it was last occupied by the ranch’s sole heir, California-reared, Stanford-educated Richard Smart, a singer who once headlined at L.A.’s Cocoanut Grove. He transformed the sprawling house into a French-Hawaiian showplace. It remains much as he left it -- he died in 1992 -- with crystal chandeliers and an art collection that includes Degas, Pissarro and Erte.

I learned the history of the Parkers, a six-generation dynasty born when John Palmer Parker I, of Massachusetts, jumped ship here in 1809. The enterprising 19-year-old was hired to tend King Kamehameha I’s royal fishponds; later, the king granted Parker the right to shoot thousands of maverick cattle that were running amok and, profiting nicely from sale of beef and hides, Parker bought a few acres. He married Kipikane, the king’s granddaughter, whose dowry included 640 more acres. It was the start of Parker Ranch, which Smart left to the Parker Ranch Trust Foundation to benefit the Waimea community.

Another day I drove south to the Kona Historical Society’s Kona Coffee Living History Farm at Kealakekua, near Kailua-Kona, for a glimpse into the lives of the island’s early 20th century Japanese coffee pioneers. Leading us through the orchards and into a 1925 home built by Japanese immigrants, guide Janet Yanagi told about going to her senior prom in the 1940s, her fingers stained from picking coffee cherries. We popped some open to see coffee beans, which resemble gooey peanuts.

Back in Waimea, I drove to the old mule station at Pololu Valley Lookout. I was taking the Kohala Mule Trail Adventure offered by Hawaii Forest & Trail. Paniolo (cowboy) Kalei Carvalho sized me up and decided that I’d ride J.J., “a nice mellow fellow.” Our group saddled up and rode tail to tail across cattle country. As we negotiated steep drops into stream crossings, I clung madly to J.J., who snorted a lot but didn’t dump me. We dismounted and took in an incredible view of Pololu Valley and Waiakalae Falls. (The mule ride has been discontinued, but another company, Paniolo Adventures, offers a variety of horseback rides.)

My next destination was Hilo, on the Big Island’s eastern shore. I’d reserved a room at Waterfalls Inn, a B&B; in a gracious, plantation-style home on the banks of the Wailuku River. It is a good base for exploring Hawaii Volcanoes National Park 29 miles west. Hilo, with its old wooden storefronts and 30-acre, Japanese-style Queen Liliuokalani Gardens on the shores of Hilo Bay, has its own charms.

At the little Pacific Tsunami Museum, guide Sheila Clark described experiencing the April 1, 1946, tsunami that claimed 96 lives.

“We had no warning whatsoever,” she said. (A warning center in Honolulu opened in 1958. Even so, a 1960 tsunami killed 61 people and leveled 500 buildings, changing the face of Hilo’s waterfront.)

Hawaiian history comes to life at Hilo’s Lyman Museum, which recognizes the cultural contributions of immigrants who came to work in the sugar fields, starting with the Chinese in 1852.

Who knew that the ukulele was brought from Portugal? You don’t learn that lounging on the beach at Waikiki.

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Where to stay, play

WHERE TO STAY:

Waterfalls Inn, 240 Kaiulani St., Hilo, Big Island; (888) 808-4456, www.waterfallsinn.com. Four spacious, beautifully appointed en suite rooms in a restored 1916 plantation-style house on the banks of Wailuku River. Doubles $140-$190 (with two-night minimum), including continental-plus breakfast.

Jacaranda Inn, 65-1444 Kawaihae Road, Waimea, Big Island; (808) 885-8813. www.jacarandainn.com. B&B; in the former Parker Ranch manager’s home. En suite rooms, housed in six cottages, are lovely; on my visit, the main house was a work in progress. Doubles $159-$225 ($450 for three-bedroom cottage), including excellent full breakfast.

North Country Farms, 4387 Kahili Makai St., Kilauea, Kauai; (808) 828-1513, www.northcountryfarms.com. For an eco-tourism experience. Guests in the two self-contained cottages on this organic family farm receive an “aloha” breakfast basket on arrival. They’re free to pick salad greens and fruit right outside their doors. $130 per night.

Hale Honua Lani, 4170 Wailapa Road, Kilauea, Kauai; (808) 828-1563, www.starmen.com/bnb.html. Charming, very private self-contained view cottage on bluff overlooking the beach. $200 a night (with three-night minimum); $165 a night for week’s stay.

WHERE TO EAT:

Merriman’s, 65-1227 Opela Road, Waimea, Big Island; (808) 885-6822, www.merrimanshawaii.com. Chef Peter Merriman’s creative regional cuisine features fresh island products. Inviting room with rattan, greenery. Dinner entrees $30-$45.

Daniel Thiebaut, 65-1259 Kawaihae Road, Waimea, Big Island; (808) 887-2200. www.danielthiebaut.com. French-Asian menu. Sushi bar Tuesday-Saturday nights. Dinner entrees $25-$46.

Postcards Cafe, 5-5075A Kuhio Highway, Hanalei, Kauai; (808) 826-1191, www.postcardscafe.com. Twinkling lights, rattan chairs and ceiling fans lend tropical ambience. Fresh fish and vegetarian only. Dinner entrees $15-$22.

Kaikodo, 60 Keawe St., Hilo, Big Island; (808) 961-2558, www.restaurantkaikodo.com. Opened in 2004 in an elegantly tropical space with Asian antiques in a vintage bank building. Vast fusion menu. Dinner entrees $25-$38

Hilo Bay Cafe, 315 Makaala St., Hilo, Big Island; (808) 935-4939, www.hilobaycafe.com. Chic little bistro in a mall on the city’s outskirts is a good choice for lunch or dinner. Dinner entrees start at $8 for chicken potpie and top out at $32.

WHAT TO DO:

Saddle up with Paniolo Adventures, (808) 889-5354, www.panioloadventures.com. Horseback rides, including on the open range, on the Big Island. Beginners welcome. Boots, chaps and hats provided. Rides from $79, including taxes.

Kona Historical Society, Kona Coffee Living History Farm tour, 82-6199 Mamalahoa Highway, Kealakekua, Big Island; (808) 323-2006, www.konahistorical.org. Learn about the lives of early Japanese coffee farmers on hourlong tours, 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Mondays-Fridays; $15 per person.

Native Hawaiian Hospitality Assn., 900 Fort Street Mall, Suite 1300, Honolulu; (808) 441-1404, www.nahha.com. Take a two-hour walking tour of historic Waikiki. By appointment; $150 for up to 25 people.

Puuopelu, Parker Ranch, Highway 190, Waimea, Big Island; (808) 885-5433, www.parkerranch.com. The elegant home has the fine art collection of the ranch’s last heir. Open 10 a.m.-5 p.m. daily, except Sundays; admission $9 for adults, includes an informative talk.

-- Beverly Beyette