Lanai - Manele Bay and Koele Lodge

Lanai was just wild country, wind blown and desert, until 1922 when the Hawaiian Pineapple Company, Ltd., under James Dole, issued $1,200,000 worth of stock to finance its purchase and established the island as a major producer of pineapples. In 1990, this all ended. Lanai left the pineapple business, and except for a few plants kept here and there as curios, the pineapples are gone. (We Kalebergs may be implicated as the end of the pineapple business was announced the day we landed.)

They have been replaced, as a business, by two resort hotels: Koele Lodge in the highlands, not far from Lanai City, and Manele Bay, along the south coast and more of a beach resort. Lanai City is no longer a rough and tumble town for pineapple workers, but a local center and magnet for tourists.

Koele Lodge has magnificent gardens.

It also has wild turkeys, among the many game birds imported over the years.

More Koele gardens

Even more Koele gardens

One of the shops on the main street in Lanai City

The lobby at Koele Lodge - There are sculpted monkeys on those chandeliers.

The Manele Bay lobby

The Manele Bay setting

Manele Bay gardens

Another view of the wonderfully ornate Manele Bay lobby

The Manele Bay hotel