After spending two weeks in Hawaii, it's pretty clear why people live there. No, not the perfect year round weather. No, not the fact that sporting events all happen in the early morning, freeing up your afternoons and evenings to do other things. No, not even the year round deliciously fresh fruits or laid back culture. It's because everywhere you go on Oahu, everywhere you look - it feels like Lost!
I can't count the number of times I'd walk past some place and think "this looks familiar". But thanks to the Lost Virtual Tour Website (http://lostvirtualtour.com/) and the "Hawaii Revealed" Guide Books (http://www.wizardpub.com/oahu/oahu.html) I was able to pinpoint some specific locations and confirm my suspicions.
Side note: for anyone going to Hawaii, I can't recommend the "Hawaii Revealed" books enough. Well-written, smart, thorough, and full of a ton of "off the beaten path" stuff - kinda like the Rick Steve's equivalent for Hawaii.
But I digress. Here's a full rundown of what I saw!
1. The Others Barracks. It's actually a YMCA Camp on the North Shore of Oahu, so I was a little worried we were going to get arrested for sneaking around and taking pictures while little kids played across the street - but it all worked out. Clearly the people love that Lost films there, shown by the following painted on the street:
Surprisingly, it looked like people were actually staying in these barracks since there were things like beach towels and bathing suits hanging outside them. But there were a few sections roped off - which makes me think that's where the filming action was going to be happening:
The interesting thing was that one of the areas fenced off was the "playground" area - featuring a swingset that was falling apart and a Barracks door laying on the ground. Take your pick if this means the filming is happening in 2008 Island time (when Sun and Ben visited the derelict Barracks) or if this was just aftermath from the 1977 Island time (after Jack and Co. blew up and shot up the Barracks, stealing the Jughead).
2. The Fuselage (and Beechcraft Plane). Nothing too exciting here, but cool to see. The Fuselage is kept under wraps at an airfield less than a few miles away from the Others Barracks (to keep tourists away, undoubtedly - but you see how successful that was):
The good news is that it's always pretty windy on the North Shore, so it didn't take long for the wind to pick up and reveal that Yemi's Beechcraft Plane is being stored there as well:
Logically, neither of these props were in use - since I can't figure out how either would easily fit into a Season Six storyline - but it is curious that they are still there, rather than being destroyed if they were never going to be used again.
3. Pilot Episode Beach. Directly across the street from the airfield was the Beach where they filmed the scenes for the first few episodes of Lost. Again, super convenient since they were keeping all the airplane parts across the street! Nothing going on there, but still gorgeous beach and cool to see:
4. The Survivor's Camp. The coolest thing I saw had to be another beach (again on the North Shore - but super secluded and tricky to find) where I stumbled upon the derelict campground for our Survivors!
Pieces of Oceanic 815 being used for shelter:
The graves of Boone, Shannon, Ana-Lucia, Libby, Nikki, and Paulo:
Eko and Charlie's half-built Church:
Most of the area was fenced off (with a friendly security guard patrolling the area who indicated that they were going to be filming there) - but I still knocked on some Oceanic 815 parts (real metal) and walked around.
Here's the important takeaway here - based on the condition of the camp, it's the 2008-era camp. Based on the fact that the Survivors camp still exists, they didn't prevent the crash of Oceanic 815, right? Here's hoping, at least.
Lastly, although I didn't run into any human cast members while in Hawaii, I did run into a non-human one. Looks like Vincent is alive and well!
So there you have it, my report from Hawaii. I also saw a bunch of other less interesting things (the Hawaii Convention Center - which is used as the LAX Airport, recreated the Desmond and Penny picture with my hot wife, etc) but figured those would be less interesting to the Blog World.
Now it's time to catch up on a TON of DVR'd TV shows and see how my Fall TV Preview is holding up!
