Heaven on Earth

Rich with native plants and farm-to-table crops, Hualālai’s landscape is an Eden that calls for a closer look.

BY AMANDA MILLIN

The Road Home - Lava-rock walls, a monkeypod tree (far left), and naupaka indigenous shrubs greet Hualālai’s resident families and hotel guests on their way in. The road meanders through a kīpuka (opening in the lava) and is flanked by shell ginger, with its drooping clusters of flowers, before reaching the lushly landscaped, ocean-view lobby area. “You know you’re coming out of somewhere and going into something that is going to be incredible,” says director of landscaping Erin Lee.

Photo: Anna Pacheco

Well before the winding road finally delivers you to Hualālai’s lobby, you know you’ve arrived. Fanning out, seemingly to the horizon, are fountain grass and lava rock, pōhinahina (indigenous ground cover with flowers) and naupaka (indigenous shrubs). A ways back, at the stone sign bearing the resort’s name, you passed the orange trunk and tangled canopy of a wiliwili—a native tree believed to be a gift from the Hawaiian god Kāne—standing out against fields of lava rock. “It’s intentionally designed to have a sparse dryland appearance,” Erin Lee, Hualālai’s director of landscaping for the past 18 years, says of that entry point. “You come into what the land looked like before development.”

Such striking terrain calls for meticulous caretakers, and Hualālai’s 70 landscapers and gardeners, including the entry landscape team headed by Bob Tiffany, take great pride in their work. “Landscape maintenance here is done at the highest level,” says John Palos, landscape manager for the Four Seasons Resort Hualālai. “We have high standards, we have high expectations. We cater to our guests—everything is based off of our guests’ experience.” Palos oversees the hotel’s roughly 35-acre footprint, while other members of the landscape department, including Jerod Kahoalii of the special projects team, tend to landscaping and infrastructure needs across Hualālai’s hundreds of acres, both the resort and residential areas. “We do the rock walls, we do trees, we do irrigation, we do concrete— you name it, we do it all,” says Kahoalii. “It’s a whole team effort.”

The lovingly landscaped oceanfront resort has cultivated its enthusiasm for Hawai‘i’s native plants over time. Lee says this went hand in hand with local nurseries carrying more canoe plants (species brought by the Polynesians) and indigenous offerings. Now, the leeward property teems with them. Examples include kupukupu fern, ‘ākia shrubs, ‘uki ‘uki ground cover, and kou trees, plus herb and vegetable gardens, fruit trees, and Hawaiian fishponds the resort’s chefs rely on to enrich their menus. Lee offers walking tours of the hotel grounds (ask the concierge), but first, for a sneak peek, read on.

Grounds for Exploration - A tropical breeze through towering coconut palms makes Four Seasons Resort Hualālai’s hammocks a perfect spot to soak in the ocean view. Afterward, you’ll be ready for a stroll—or a guided walk with Lee— to explore the resort’s natural treasures.

Photo: Allen Kennedy

“Canoe plants possess ethnobotanical importance. They’re medicinal, they’re food, they’re arts and crafts, religion, everything. They are tied to the people. They are essential to [Hawaiians’] livelihood—to their whole culture.” —ERIN LEE

Unexpected Twists Benjamin banyan trees and coconut palms interwoven above a winding footpath guide the way, inviting residents and guests to slow down and smell the fragrant blossoms of the Singapore plumeria. All of the resort’s pathways are curvaceous in nature. There are no straight lines. “The point is not to be hurried from one point to the next, but to meander through the property, to be surprised by focal points,” explains Lee. Keep an eye out (both outside and in the restaurants) for homegrown apple bananas, starfruit, papayas, and Sugarloaf White Hawaiian pineapples—a local favorite thanks to its creamier and sweeter white flesh, which is also lower in acid and less fibrous.

“Nothing is formal. Not like English gardens and manicured hedges. There is some trimming, but everything is done in a very natural style. I was hired to make sure we maintained that beauty, that elegance.” —ERIN LEE

A Beautiful Sight - Thinking of the land holistically, from mauka to makai (mountains to sea), is at the essence of Hawaiian culture. Embodying this is the cohesive landscape design at Hualālai, where residents and guests can see naupaka shrubs, coconut and cabadae palms, Singapore plumeria, the Pacific Ocean, and Haleakalā all in one sight line.

Photo: Anna Pacheco