Hawaiian Legacy Tours

MALAMA KA ‘AINA = «to care for the land»
How do you care for the land? Plant a tree! After I read Brandon’s review, I knew I had to bring my kids to see this place. We’ve planted trees at our house, but we’ve never planted a Koa tree on the slopes of Mauna Kea, Hawaii’s tallest volcano. The tour was scenic, taking us up to high altitudes on a 4×4 vehicle so we could see the entire forest in various stages of growth. Our guides were fantastic and really knew the land, pointing out various trees and special wildlife. My kids got to see an ‘Io, a Hawaiian hawk, which is protected as an endangered species and only found on the Big Island. I had never seen one before so that was pretty cool to see it out in the wild.
GRAND TOUR (3.5hr):
This is a unique experience you will find nowhere else in Hawaii. I am going to tell you about our experience (2 adults, 2 kids) on the Grand Tour which included a Koa legacy tree planting ‘session’. We have been to the Big Island many many times before, but this is definitely one of my favorite things we’ve ever done.
LOCATION:
This is on the BIG ISLAND, HAWAII on the slopes of Mauna Kea. They have an office in Honolulu ( Unilocal has it listed in Honolulu), but that is not the location of the Koa tree forest, or where the tour is. You can’t really put this one in your GPS. We came from Kona side (took about 90 min from Waikoloa), but you can come from either Hilo or Kona. If you go to their website to get directions, the directions will say «turn right after at Donna’s cookies at the Kukaiau Ranch sign… drive 3.3mi through a winding road in the Eucalyptus forest… through the guard shack, pass the Kukauia Estates sign, watch for cows and horses, up 1.2mi to Umikoa Village, keep going until you see 3 houses». The scenery as we drove up the volcano looked like something straight out of a movie.
GRAND TOUR PRICE (3.5hrs):
$ 180 per adult (includes one Koa tree for planting)
$ 90 per child (ages 5 – 18, does not include a tree)
PLANTERS TOUR PRICE (2hrs):
**you get to plant your tree but don’t get to see all of the forest**
$ 110 per adult (includestree for planting)
$ 55 per child (ages 5 – 18, no tree)
VEHICLE USED:
We rode on the Kawasaki T-​Rex, which was a yellow off road vehicle. If you are the type to get car sick, you will get car sick on this. There is a roof but no windows. The sun/​rain up on the volcano can be unpredictable and the weather can change quickly. We went during the summer but it was cold and rainy for parts of our tour. Bring sunscreen and rain jackets, you never know what it’s going to look like until you get there.
THE FOREST
Because of the unique climate on Mauna Kea, the type of Koa tree that grows here is not grown anywhere else in the world. We have lots of Koa trees on Oahu, but they aren’t valued like the ones grown on the Big Island. They started to clear the forest over a century ago to make room for farming and ranching, which wiped out almost all the Koa trees. Now they are trying to save the forest, so they have put up fences and gates to keep out the pigs, cattle, and hunters to allow the trees to grow once again.
PLANTING THE KOA TREE
We found our spot up in the middle of a field and my kids got to plant their baby trees. We got the certificate which has the GPS coordinates of each tree so we can go back and visit the tree later when it’s part of a large forest once again. You can put a name on the certificate to dedicate the tree to someone you love. Or not.
THE TOUR
Besides planting the tree, which was pretty neat, the tour took us up and down the entire forest. Our tour was bumpy, rainy, fresh, and definitely educational. We saw the lone koa tree, which was left behind from over a hundred years ago, and saw different forests at various stages of growth. We learned about different flora/​fauna and wildlife only seen on the slopes of Mauna Kea. I don’t remember any toilets during our 3.5hr tour, but I think they were going to put one up at the top of the vista soon.
So while it seemed like $ 540 was a ridiculous amount of money to plant 2 trees, I hope someday my kids will see their GPS certificate for their koa tree and take their kids back to the big island to show them the koa forest and teach them about MALAMA KA ‘AINA.

This place is amazing. I went to the location on the Big Island and had a tour with amazing Jackie. We got to pick our tree, and ride up in a cool yellow buggy in the cool mountain air. I felt like I was in an ATV or very mini roller coaster. Super super fun!!! Jackie was extremely knowledgeable about the seeding process, which trees are used for seeding (the straight ones), the famous old koa trees, the age of the trees in different locations, sandalwood, and the various birds there. She took photos of each place with us and emailed it for memories. Super sweet.
I cannot say how impressed I was by the whole tour! It started with a bacon scone. Yes! Bacon and some kind of maple tasting delight that melts into your mouth (Jackie heated it up so it was like fresh from the oven!) She ran in and out of the buggy like a million times to open and close the gates. And still had enough energy to tell us stories and give us history and facts about everything.
It finished off with plans for reforestation of the area, how they worked with the local ranchers to build alternate routes so that things are pono even though they didn’t have to, and a planting of our koa trees with some kind of cool geo tagging thing you can see on Google Maps.
And it came with super high quality certificates that had seals and the exact GPS location of your dedicated tree.
This is a fabulous idea for weddings, memorials, anniversaries, or just because moments. Highly highly recommend! And ask for Jackie! She is fabulous, gorgeous inside and out, and amazingly smart.

I will be upfront and tell you this is an amazing idea. I’m sure you’ve heard about naming a star after a loved one, but you can’t really see, touch or feel the star. The other thing about it is naming a star isn’t recognized by the scientific community. Astronomers will not recognize your name because your name is published only in the seller’s Star catalog.
Here’s a better idea, dedicate a Koa or Sandlewood Tree on your special one’s behalf. Yes it’s as easy and paying for it and with the click of the mouse it’s yours. Just go to
and you’ll be able to reserve your Legacy Tree for a special one. But honestly, this is an experience. You really should take advantage of the tour (
) where you go on property, select a Legacy Tree of your own liking and take the tour out to the field to plant the tree. The best part? They RFID tag your tree with a GPS tracking that provides a unique signature and includes the sponsor’s name (you), honoree (dedication), date planted, and the location of the tree. Using your coordinates you’ll be able to go online and zoom in on the area your tree is planted using applications like Google Earth. So even if you can’t make it out there to plant a tree and you just name one remotely from anywhere in the world, you will still be able to find the area that your tree is. The neat part? You take the tour years later and see how big your tree has grown. Pretty cool right? Not only that, you are aiding in the reforestation of Koa and Sandlewood trees for generations to follow. While I was on tour there was even talk of developing an app so that you can record a message with your tagged tree so that in the future when you visit, you’ll be able to see how much your tree has grown and hear the message. Imagine you doing this for your kids and leaving them a message. When they grow up they’ll be able to hear the message you’ve left behind for them. I really hope this comes to fruition as they are in the planning stages for this.
Hawaiian Legacy Hardwoods has two sides to it’s business, the above mentioned as well as the Sustainable Hardwood Investment (
). This is where individuals or companies may purchase lots of trees and use them as a future investments similar to purchasing stock, profitability is based on the demand for the trees as hardwood lumber. Must of us on Unilocal use this platform as an individual so this is just more FYI. But again, highly recommend getting a legacy tree. You get a certificate w/​the RFID tag as well as more information on the reforestation of the trees.