The Pineapple Maze

After a long summer and early fall hiatus, I've decided I need and want to get blogging again. There were so many things I wanted to write about our summer in the Mainland but I didn't and now it seems like old news, so I will just begin again.

Yesterday, Amber and I took her kids to the world's largest maze. It is at the Dole pineapple plantation. The center of the maze is shaped like a pineapple and all the winding paths are tall hedges of hibiscus trees mostly. Topaz really likes to do mazes on the computer and on paper, so we thought he might like to see what a real one is like.

When we went in, I was a little concerned thinking we had to complete the whole thing correctly on one path before we could ever get out again. If you know me very well, you know I am easily lost and always end up needing a bathroom right when none is available.

In this maze we were often lost, but you enter and follow a straight line to the center pineapple. Eight entrances go off from the center and you wind around in them. Back in the bushes they overlap so that you might go in one gate and come out another. In each of the eight areas you can eventually find a machine where you can mark your little passport with a picture that indicates you found that one. We let Topaz tell us which way to turn most of the time so sometimes we repeated the rows. When you walk directly to each sign post you cover a total of 2.4 miles, so I'm sure we did a little more than that. It is not too stressful because you can always wind you way back to the center and sit down and think about it or rest and drink water, if you take water, which we did and I would recommend.

We were doing quite well and still had two sign posts to find. Topaz was having a great time. Emerald was happy in her stroller, but I had a bit of a struggle pushing her as the paths were rocks. Anyway we were going along very well despite the repeats and periods of being completely lost when Topaz exclaimed "Look only two more places to find!" He seemed totally excited to continue on when about three feet later he said "I'm done Mommy let's go". We all were pretty well baked in the 89 degree weather and my shirt was completely wet from sweat so we really didn't argue. We went back to the center pineapple and straight out to the gift shop and bought Topaz a Pineapple Maze finisher T-shirt to celebrate the accomplishment. Our punchout clock said it had taken us one hour and twenty minutes.

The Dole Pineapple Maze is listed in the Guinness Book of World Records in both 1998 and 2001 as the world's largest maze. They still advertise it as the world's largest so I presume it still is.