Once you arrive at Aulani, you will hear and see quite a bit about the Menehune. You can and will find Menehune statues ALL over the resort. They are hidden along the paths, in the elevators, in corners of the hallway, EVERYWHERE! My kids loved looking for and finding new ones! Even after a week of exploring the resort, we were still finding new Menehune hiding places. It was so much fun!
One of my kids FAVORITE things to do at the resort was the Menehune Adventure Trail. There is an indoor and an outdoor trail. We completed BOTH trails, and my kids even wanted to do them again. We spent almost all our evenings at the Resort doing the Menehune trail.
The outdoor trail is considerably longer than the indoor one. The indoor one only has one set of adventures, and can be done in about 30 minutes or less (probably less because there is less walking around compared to outside). I read there are 30 adventures – I cannot confirm that number, since we didn’t count, but that seems about right.
You can start and stop the adventures at any time you’d like and come back later and pick up right where you left off! You are given a special number that keeps track of what adventures you’ve done, and where you left off. So when you start back, you can start where you left off the last time without repeating adventures you’ve already done! They are bundled into 4-5 adventures, that take about 30 minutes or so (or that is what it took us, but we have small kids that take longer!). You also are only supposed to have the iPad for about an hour, but you can go back to the Pau Hana room, and ask to have it longer, and they’ll let you keep it longer (I am guessing if there are people waiting, they won’t, but we didn’t have that issue).
To begin your adventure, you head to the Pau Hana room and ask to start the trail. If you’ve done it before, they’ll look up your adventure number. If it is your first time, they will assign you the number, have you sign the waiver, and had you the iPad. Then you head out on your adventure! Aunty is your guide on the adventure.
Aunty and her friends adventures will lead you all over the Waikolohe Valley or the Lobby of Aulani, solving problems based on the video clues you are given. There are lots of fun interactive stations for you to stop at and solve.
Some of our favorites were the flaming whale, the Lava tube inside of Pu’u Kilo, the waterfall the turns on in the Waikolohe pool, and the plate that rumbles under your feet! Inside, there was an adventure where you even get a bead to keep!
I think it took us a total of 2 hours to do all the adventures outside and 15-20 minutes to do the one inside. Well worth the time – the kids LOVED it. You’ll see families running around the Waikolohe Valley with these iPads during your whole stay.
This is a great activity for the whole family. It is included in your stay at Aulani and is something you are not going to want to miss!
One of the adventures. I think this was the cloth one.
Turtle lit up in lights on one adventure!
We made the lampost light on fire – how cool is that?!?!
Boys looking down a hole with the iPad in front of them
One of the stops on the Menehune Adventure Trail.. As you can see, one of our kids did the adventure in his Pj’s..
The drum adventure clue!
The clue at Keiki Cove!
The Whale that lights on fire at Pu‘u Kilo! My almost 2-year-olds favorite adventure!
Waiting for a clue to come up!
If you look toward the center of the photo, you can see the turtle about to come up!
