After spending a few cherished days there it’s hard to picture Turtle Bay Resort on Oahu’s famed North Shore as being “sleepy” but that’s how Danna Holck, the current general manager, described it during our interview.
” When I first got here I felt that it was a really sleepy resort because while it was beautiful there wasn’t a lot going on and so mostly everybody was at the pool or the beach and that was it,” she explained. ” So over the last four years it’s transitioned from being a sleepy resort to being a resort that ‘s full of adventure, full of excitement. It’s just come alive.”
Kind of like when Rip Van Winkle rubbed the sleep out his eyes.
A $45 million dollar makeover, renovation, facelift- pick a verb- will do that to a place.
Since Replay Resorts took over things at Turtle Bay the transformation has been like night and day, with the emphasis on night for the most part, she said.
” If you go to the bar now at night there’s tons of people out there and when I first got here there really wasn’t. When the sun went down everybody went in.”
Now you can find a lot of those people taking in the smorgasboard of entertainment in Surfer, The Bar, a union of the popular magazine Surfer and Turtle Bay.
The spectacular ocean view combines with the stage where you can hear all types of music along with the traditional talk stories where audience members are treated to tales of the local culture.
When the sun is out you’ll find visitors enjoying a range of activities from tennis, horseback riding,hiking, biking, and a hold on tight, make sure you’re camera is working helicopter ride in a replica of the chopper made famous by the Magnum P.I. tv series.
Without giving anything away make sure you’re seatbelt is snug for that one.
Surfing is king here on the Seven Mile Miracle which includes the famous Bonzai Pipeline, Waimea Bay, Sunset Beach and Haleiwa for starters.
Early in the fall you will find the friendlier eight to 10 foot waves being attacked by all levels of surfer but later in the year the three story high monsters send the faint of heart to the sand to watch the experts carve their patterns in the water.
After all of that you’ll need to calm down and the Nalu Kinetic Spa can take you there.
With a full range of services to choose from you could find it difficult but I had the ultra-relaxing seaside massage.
No need for the canned wave crashing sounds in the background. The real thing was a mere 50 feet away. Once it was over the masseuse almost had to put a mirror under my nose to see if I was still breathing.
Yep, I was relaxed and had to be politely coaxed out of the room .
Maybe sitting on a beach reading a book is your release.There is that opportunity with the quiet little Kuilima Cove tucked to the east of the resort or you can make the trek over to Kawela Bay for some kayaking or do a little turtle watching.
If golf is your game then you get to choose from not one but two solid tracks to play.
The Arnold Palmer Course wraps its way around a 100 acre wildlife preserve in the Punaho’olapa Marsh .
This track gets a bit more of the action due to it’s reputation as the host of seven Champion Tour events, five LPGA events and the Big Break Five.
The front nine presents you with a battle against the prevailing wind but the holes are wide open so a wayward shot can be found.
The back nine has an ironwood forest blocking the wind which played havoc with your ball flight on the front but now you really need to it the carpet-like fairways in order to score well.
The George Fazio course is more of the resort style course where those starting the game will be able to make their way around without being harshly punished for wayward shots.
While it doesn’t have the professional resume of it’s neighbour there is a little history to be noted while you play.
Back in 1988 Sam Snead, Arnold Palmer, Chi Chi Rodriguez and Gary Player teed it up for the first Seniors Skins Game.
The greens on the Fazio course are smaller than those on the Palmer with the bunkers protecting those greens somewhat deeper.
One of the biggest changes at Turtle Bay Resort is a shift towards becoming more culturally aware and having Hacht on hand, a born and raised Hawaiian , has helped keep the local culture alive.
One example she underlined was how previous management prevented staff from wearing more than one bracelet.
” Culturally we wear as many as we can and as we age or when we pass on we hand them down to our children. So it’s a heritage thing, it;s what we do. We were just allowed to wear one and that’s just not how I was raised so we changed that rule. Really simple but meaningfull to the employees.”
The resort prides itself on sharing Hawaiian culture with the guests and a former professor at the University of Hawaii is keeping an watchful eye on how that is being done.
Tom ” Pohaku ” Stone, who taught Hawaiian history, language,and traditional sports has been associated with Turtle Bay resort since about the same time Replay Resorts took over the reigns some four years ago.
He says surfing is a huge part of the Hawaiian culture and Turtle Bay Resort rides that wave like a pro.
But Pohaku says the world he lives in is of course much bigger than those waves and the resort does a very good job of incorporating the living culture for guests to see and experience.
” So far they are doing very good and if they weren’t I wouldn’t be here at all,” he said.
He’s become friends with the owners and investors but not a business partner
He describes himself as more of a watch dog for the people he calls family to make sure the resort sticks close to what Hawaii and the North Shore are all about.
” I come out and support ( Turtle Bay) as long as it’s on the money about who we are as people.”
So from the roof top garden and farm area which supplies the chefs at Turtle Bay with many ingredients to the very friendly staff giving you the shaka sign ( something else they weren’t allowed to do before) the resort is serving up a taste of Hawaii to savour and enjoy.
Stone says he’s impressed with how the G.M. has gone out of her way to hire local people and surround herself with a team who are experts in Hawaiian traditions.
” All her people around her are very accustomed to traditions and they bring that to the visitors and to the way every employee is trained to interact with the visitor and I think that’s fabulous,” he said.
” Those are the type of things that I think maybe seeing it through the eyes of a local like me I can help to bring those cultural things back and I think that that’s what people come here for, ” said Hacht. ” Not just to learn to surf or swim but to learn the culture.It’s different than anywhere else . There’s just so much aloha and I want to instill it and make the employees feel glad to be here and they will share that with our guests.”
Mahalo.
