Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/458251
S P R I N G 2 0 1 5 | W E S T W O R L D 25 mild fish) and fish tacos with island slaw at the upscale waterfront 'AMA'AMA restaurant. And tonight at the Makahiki buffet, omas and I will make repeat trips to the seafood section, with its heaps of local poached shrimp and red snow crab legs, while Dan downs the roasted prime rib with garlic-herb Hawaiian salt. is afternoon, though, we set up camp at the new Ka Maka Landing, home to a beach- front infinity pool and café, and Keiki Cove, a water play area with spouting jets and a blue octopus mosaic underfoot. Peering out from their foliage-fringed hiding spots, a couple of Menehune grin at the landing's comings and goings. e pool itself pays homage to the leg- end of Māui, the demigod who brought the Hawaiian Islands to the surface of the ocean with his giant fishhook. Starfish and sand dol- lars (man-made, of course) adorn the pool's coral-like grotto, where tiny white lights twin- kle in the form of Manaiakalani, or Māui's fish- hook constellation, come nightfall. But there are real stars to ogle after sun- down, too. Beneath a pink-grey tropical sky, we settle into lounge chairs around a crackling fire overlooking the beach, for the Fireside Mo'olelo Storytelling. A bearded, straw-hat- topped Hawaiian elder called Uncle regales us, gesticulating wildly and strumming a ukulele, with a love story about a fisherman and a fetching Hawaiian princess. Afterward, we sleepily saunter back to our room. "IN HIGH SCHOOL, we went to a taro patch, we camped out in tents and actually had to wash our hair with this . . . it works," says our guide, Uluwehipuanani, on a tour of Aulani's nature and wildlife attractions the next morn- ing. Pointing to plants along the Waikolohe Valley's pathways, she explains how early Hawaiians would squeeze liquid from the torch ginger's thick red petals for shampoo, and how the women would pound bark from the paper mulberry tree to form a fabric called kapa for the men's loincloths. We wrap up the 45-minute tour at Rainbow Reef. As we gaze through the large viewing win- dows at some of the 1,300 fish and 43 varieties that live in this man-made lagoon, our long- named guide aptly points out the reef's longest- (opposite) A Menehune slumbers in the rafters of the Ulu Cafe; the Ka Maka infinity pool. (this page, clockwise from bottom) The airy art-lined Aulani lobby; Hawaiian elder, Uncle, hosts the Fireside Mo'olelo Storytelling; the Menehune Bridge water play area; a Mickey lamp, one of the few Disney touches in the guestrooms.