Finding LOST filming locations on a tour of Kualoa Ranch in Oahu

After having so much fun visiting LOST related filming sites in Oahu, I knew that I wouldn’t be happy leaving the island unless I got to experience a lot more.

Whilst it’s extremely easy to drive around the island seeing the majority of well-known filming locations, I had read online that there were plenty more sites that weren’t available to the general public as they were located on private property.

After spending a few hours researching online, I eventually decided to go with 5-hour Kos Hummer Movie/Lost Adventure Tour. I liked the fact that as well as LOST filming sites you could see movie locations too – such as Jurassic Park, Pearl Harbour and Godzilla.

In true LOST style, on the morning of the tour the heavens opened and we experienced a crazy torrential downpour, causing us to get extremely wet and muddy extremely very quickly!

After getting acquainted with our tour guide and meeting the two other people on the tour, we set off for Kualoa Ranch to start exploring!

As soon as we set off, I realised that we were now sat with the most irritating and bizarre couple. Dressed like they were from the 1920’s, they greeted me by asking me if I was a “Jater or a Skater”. Oh dear. It was going to be a long tour….

The first stop was visiting the house where John Locke’s father lived. You couldn’t see too much of it due to the security gates around the property, but it was still instantly recognisable. I wonder if the people who live there get fed up with the constant hummers driving past with staring tourists snapping photos!

As much as I dislike rain, I was really glad it was raining when we got to visit the banyan trees in the jungle. So many scenes have been shot there, and almost always in torrential rain!

It was quite scary standing there with the rain falling so heavily that it was hurting your head, preventing you from being able to see properly, making the floor so muddy that with every step you sunk down inches and felt like you were about to fall – not to mention the sounds of animals nearby.

Needless to say, I was glad to escape this part and jump back into the safe hummer!

Originally a World War II military installation, The Tempest becomes one of the Dharma stations that stores a poisonous gas in the show. On the way there we were overtaken by about 20 men riding quad bikes over the grass. Zooming around like maniacs, they decided to stop right outside The Tempest to ruin our photo-taking opportunity! We decided to wait them out, so I stood from afar and shot them one of my famous deadly glares until they got the hint and drove away, finally leaving us alone.

The bizarre couple who were on the tour with us decided to re-enact Jack and Juliet’s kiss outside the tempest. For a very long time. AFTER the photo of them had been taken… Fun.

Some of my favourite parts of the tour were getting to see the various different piers that were used over the seasons. We got to visit the submarine pier that was used in both the present day and flashback parts of the show, as well as the main pier where Ben and The Others were finally revealed to the audience.

A lot of the scenes in LOST that were set in South America, Nigeria, Australia or elsewhere were almost always shot on Hawaii. We got to visit the South American school where Jack visits Sayid to try and convince him to return to the island.

The main part of Kualoa Ranch is huge valley which reminds me so strongly of LOST. So many scenes were filmed in this area, and everywhere I looked felt so familiar to me.

At the time of taking the tour, the cast were still in the middle of filming season 5 and so we saw a lot of filming locations that were a completely mystery, and so it was fun trying to speculate how they could be used in the show.

One of the most exciting parts was this huge wooden structure in the middle of nowhere. We had no idea what it was for but when I watched the show, I discovered it was the structure that was used to hold the hydrogen bomb.

We finished the tour with a bit of fun and games by visiting Hurley’s golf course. Our guide had come prepared for this and brought along a small model of Hurley to make it look like we were playing golf with him!

Despite the appalling company from the weird couple on the tour, we had a fantastic day driving through the mountains seeing all the sites. We were shown about 20 or so filming locations for different movies, but as I’d only seen one (Jurassic Park!) then that part of the tour was pretty dull.

Our tour guide was fantastic though – he was so knowledgable about the whole island and kept us entertained telling us about the various times he’d met the actors and the embarrassing things he’d done in front of them!

I believe that they still run these tours even though LOST has now finished. Most of the sites are still there and possible to see, so if you’re as obsessive a fan as I am. then this is definitely worth checking out if you’re in the area!