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A SHOCKING APPROACH TO TRANQUILLITY
The long-nosed mask nestled at right against a volcanic rock beneath a bower of thorny kiawe trees is a most unusual symbol of hospitality. Made of woven cane, its visage decorated with clay and native dyes, it once hung in a New Guinea tribal house to protect occupants and guests from inhospitable spirits. Along with other rare exotica from all over the Pacific, it decorates a lavish new Laurance Rockefeller resort hotel, Mauna Kea, which may itself someday rank as Pacific exotica. The first major resort on the relatively inaccessible island of Hawaii, Mauna Kea typifies the wondrous things that happen when a Rockefeller with his own philosophy of recreation begins tearing up the orthodox ideas about what a resort must have—and tearing up his budgets, too. On the following pages are more views of Mauna Kea, which opens next week, and the story of the man who built it.
Ranged for the photographer on the third tee at Mauna Kea are some of the resort's profusion of art objects—including an 18th century Thai figure, a three-legged Indian ghamla, a Japanese festival horse, a Zanzibar chest, a 700-year-old Thai Buddha—and a blue tee marker, circa 1965.
TWO PHOTOS
PETE TURNER
