Aloha|Kaʻaʻawa & Mokoliʻi — The Windward Coast from a Small Plane

The flying sequences were shot in the air over Kaʻaʻawa Valley on the windward side, where the Koʻolau range drops in green pleats straight into the water and the road has nowhere to go but along the shore. Emma Stone trained on the ground in a Piper Seminole before the aerial work; the valley below her is the one that has doubled for Jurassic Park, Skull Island and half a dozen wars.

From sea level the landmark is Mokoliʻi, the 50-metre basalt cone sitting offshore that everyone calls Chinaman's Hat. In the old account it is the tail of a moʻo, a lizard spirit, cut off by the goddess Hiʻiaka and thrown into the sea. At low tide, with reef shoes and care, you can wade the channel from Kualoa Point; the current is stronger than it looks and the crossing is not for casual swimmers.

Kualoa Regional Park across the highway is free, open, and the best place on Oʻahu to sit and watch weather come across a mountain. Rain sweeps the ridge, clears, sweeps again. The plane in the film is chasing exactly that.

Photo: Wikimedia Commons.