Travels With Agatha Christie And Sir David Suchet S01 E04
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00:00In August 1922, a young English woman arrived at an island paradise in the South Pacific.
00:17Her name, Agatha Christie.
00:26In Agatha's later novels, islands would be the setting for murder, lies, and betrayal.
00:34But no such darkness blighted her stay here.
00:37Instead, she dedicated herself to a most unlikely sport.
00:43For this, she needed a wooden board, a sense of adventure, and a large dash of true English
00:50grit.
00:52Agatha Christie had taken up surfing.
00:58We all know the cliche of Agatha being shy and reclusive and reserved.
01:04But I think that this need for the rush, the thrill, the race of life was in her all the
01:11time, even as an elderly lady.
01:15This need to tap into the wildness of the human spirit.
01:22And this was the perfect place for her to indulge her new passion, Hawaii.
01:33Before Agatha Christie was famous, she traveled the world with her husband Archie.
01:40The couple were part of a special mission tasked with championing the upcoming British
01:45Empire Exhibition.
01:48Held in London in 1924, it was designed to boost trade and strengthen the bonds between
01:55nations.
01:57Now, a century later, I'm following in her footsteps.
02:03I'm David Suchet, and I played Agatha Christie's most famous detective, Hercule Poirot, for
02:1025 years.
02:14Armed with my trusty camera, I'm recreating Agatha's incredible journey through Southern
02:20Africa, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
02:29Welcome.
02:33And I'm now following Agatha on her holiday to Hawaii.
02:37Here we have a cacao pod.
02:39I love chocolate.
02:40Oh, my goodness me, wow.
02:43I want to find out what was happening in these countries in the 1920s, and learn about the
02:49legacy of colonialism.
02:51We want that which belongs to Africa to return back to Africa.
02:57And through seeing what Agatha saw.
03:00That is extraordinary.
03:03I'll discover more about the woman whose work has played such a pivotal part in my own career.
03:09She embraced life for all it was worth.
03:13Wow, what a discovery.
03:32Agatha's adventures in Hawaii began on August 5, 1922, when she and her husband Archie arrived
03:40here after a two-week steamship voyage from New Zealand.
03:45What she and Archie witnessed must have been beyond their wildest dreams.
03:52A riot of color from flowers and tropical trees.
03:58A landscape unlike anything they'd experienced.
04:02And perhaps most important of all, a place where they could finally have a break.
04:08So far, Agatha's journeys through the various dominions have been a whirlwind of activity.
04:15Meeting dignitaries, attending dinners, listening to endless speeches, and touring around factories
04:21and farms.
04:22But now, coming here on holiday with her beloved Archie, gosh, it must have been a real tonic.
04:31Their visit to Hawaii, situated bang in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, wasn't part of
04:37their empire tour.
04:39At the time, Hawaii had little to do with Britain.
04:43Rather, it was an American territory.
04:47The couple first stayed in Honolulu, the capital of Hawaii.
04:51A place where the welcome from the people is as warm as the surrounding sea.
04:57Sylvia.
04:58Sylvia.
04:59Hey, aloha.
05:00Hello.
05:01How are you?
05:02I'm very well, but I said that, did I say that right, hello, or should I say?
05:07It's very British.
05:08It's okay.
05:09I'm, but I am British.
05:12You tell me how to say it properly.
05:14Aloha.
05:15Aloha.
05:16Aloha.
05:17Oh.
05:18Welcome to Hawaii.
05:19Goes nicely with your shirt.
05:20Oh.
05:21Aloha.
05:22What a wonderful tradition.
05:23Yes.
05:24Back in 1922, as today, visitors were welcomed to the island with flower garlands, known
05:32as leis.
05:34Sylvia is an expert at weaving them.
05:37I know of no other country where you greet people with something like a lei.
05:45Exactly.
05:46What's the tradition?
05:47The tradition is all of Hawaii, every island, they literally have flora and fauna everywhere.
05:55And in the early 1900s, they did start putting together leis with needles and thread into
06:03different creations.
06:05It depends on the seasons in the year.
06:08You can even get, this takes 350 to 400 flowers.
06:13How did that begin?
06:15I would say tourism.
06:17Really?
06:18Yes, tourism.
06:19How long ago would that have been?
06:21It started with the steamships, so all the lei makers, only the days that the boat would
06:26arrive at Aloha Tower, which is a real place, they had leis for 10 cents and leis for 25
06:35cents.
06:36So it was a business.
06:37Yes.
06:38Ah.
06:39And when Agatha Christie came here in 1920?
06:40That's when it first started, to greet and welcome the tourists.
06:45What a lovely thing.
06:46Yes, it's lovely.
06:47How long did it take you to learn this craft?
06:51I'm learning all the time.
06:53Yes.
06:54Literally learning all the time.
06:56But is it passed on the skill?
06:58Yes.
06:59Every child in Hawaii learns to make lei.
07:02We do it all our lives.
07:03This is the most difficult lei style, which is called haku, weaving, and it has a scent.
07:10People love lei with scent.
07:12So can you smell it?
07:14Wow, that's lovely.
07:16And are they different lengths, these?
07:18Well, in Agatha Christie's time, they were all the way down past your belly.
07:23Whoa, really long.
07:24Down to your hips.
07:25Yeah, oh.
07:26I did make it the extra long length.
07:29But that's beautiful.
07:30Yes.
07:31Were there any leis before tourism at all?
07:34Wearing greenery for the warriors and the men, it was about a hat, a shade, a green
07:40warrior headband made to be worn on the head like this.
07:45So this is four different kinds of greenery.
07:49So just smell it.
07:50Can you smell it?
07:51Yeah, very, very strong, isn't it?
07:54It's very powerful.
07:55So this one plant is like a menthol.
07:56Yes.
07:57But that's what Hawaiians wanted to wear, because it gave them that aroma and scent.
08:03How interesting.
08:04And this would have been made for my wrist.
08:07So you have someone you can give that to?
08:10I do.
08:12I have someone very special.
08:13Or you could put it in the hair.
08:16You're welcome.
08:24Like many visitors to Honolulu, Agatha stayed at the beachfront's best hotel, the Moana.
08:32The hotel had been opened in 1901.
08:37The first major hotel built on the island, and every one of its 75 rooms, the height
08:43of luxury.
08:45The hotel even possessed the first electric-powered elevator in Hawaii.
08:51From their balcony, the Christie's would have been able to observe the sport that helped
08:55make Hawaii famous, surfing.
09:07But Agatha wasn't content just to watch.
09:11Agatha was a fan of surfing.
09:13Well, actually, not just a fan.
09:15She was passionate about it.
09:18And I think this passion originated possibly very early on in the tour in South Africa,
09:22when she and Archie used to creep away as much as they could from committee meetings
09:27and surf and enjoy the sea.
09:31But there were only brief periods that they could snatch.
09:33But now, on holiday, they could really indulge in riding those waves.
09:38Well, at least attempt to.
09:44This extraordinary photo shows Agatha standing proudly in front of her surfboard, presumably
09:50borrowed from Fred.
09:53While the composition of the photo is formal, the swimming costume she wears is most informal,
09:59especially compared to Agatha's usual attire.
10:03I love this portrait, as it captures an unexpected side of her personality, a part of her that
10:09is little known.
10:14By the 1920s, a tradition had been established where local Hawaiians helped visitors surf.
10:22Known as the Beach Boys, you can still spot them on Waikiki Beach, Honolulu.
10:30Come on over here, reach down, grab the board and lie down on your belly.
10:34All right, now hold the board here, now arch your back.
10:39Think yoga, don't let the board hit you in the face.
10:43You know why?
10:44It hurts.
10:45Yeah, it hurts.
10:48Todd has been a Beach Boy for over 30 years, and was taught by the generation before.
10:55Put your foot up, and now release, and smile.
11:06Go ahead, Gerald, go deep water.
11:09He's off.
11:10So, that was the whole lesson?
11:12No, that was just the beginning.
11:17Okay, so he learned how to sit on the board?
11:21Correct.
11:22You were doing some wonderful arm gestures.
11:23Yes.
11:24What was this?
11:25That's the paddling technique.
11:26Oh, that's the paddling technique.
11:27Okay.
11:28This is the critical part of the whole thing.
11:30And then you were teaching him how to stand, or what happened?
11:32Correct.
11:33What I showed him was your basic Waikiki four-step technique.
11:39The Waikiki four-step technique.
11:41Correct.
11:42Taught to me by the old fellows.
11:45All certified teachers.
11:46They were all certified teachers.
11:48In those days, the Beach Boys controlled the beach, and we had to get a blue card from
11:53the state, a license, that allowed you to do it.
11:57Wow.
11:58Yes, it was very rigorous.
11:59Very rigorous.
12:00Yes.
12:01What's your whole ethos?
12:02Well, they say we're ambassadors of aloha.
12:04Beach Boys are ambassadors of aloha.
12:06I love that.
12:07Is it dangerous?
12:08Of course, surfing's very dangerous.
12:09But these waves, they don't look huge, huge, but they're very powerful?
12:13Yeah, and even on a small wave, the board can hit you in the head, or somebody else's
12:18board can hit you in the head.
12:19I've pulled plenty of people out of the water that were in the water.
12:23What about the early days, like when Agatha Christie might have been here, like in the
12:281920s?
12:29Those were the days when Duke and his brothers controlled the beach, and they took people
12:35out and they would go together.
12:40The most famous Beach Boy of Agatha Christie's time was Duke Kahana Moku.
12:46He was a superb athlete and won gold for swimming at the 1920 Olympics.
12:55But Duke's real love was surfing, and more than any other individual, he promoted the
13:01sport in Hawaii.
13:04One of the Beach Boys helped Agatha surf, and was on hand in case she got into difficulty.
13:10And she often did.
13:13Agatha cut her feet on coral.
13:16She was frequently half-drowned by the waves.
13:22And perhaps most alarmingly, one time, her swimming costume was largely ripped off.
13:28Yet these disasters simply spurred her on.
13:33You make me feel I want to have a go, but I'm not going to do it.
13:37We can.
13:38No, but it sounds so releasing if you can do it.
13:41Absolutely.
13:42And what's it feel like when you're actually standing on that board?
13:44It feels great.
13:45And I think what surfing does is taps into the wildness in the human spirit.
13:52I love that.
13:53Because that's what's so attractive about it.
13:54That's why everybody wants to do it.
13:57Yes.
14:06Agatha once described in writing what it felt like to catch and ride the wave.
14:13And I quote,
14:14Oh, it was heaven.
14:17Nothing like it.
14:19Nothing like that rushing through the water at what seems to you a speed of about 200
14:25miles per hour.
14:27All the way in from the far distant raft until you arrived gently slowing down on the beach
14:34and foundered among the soft flowing waves.
14:38It is one of the most perfect physical pleasures I have ever known.
14:44Gosh, what a beautiful description.
14:49That's so vivid.
14:50I can tell when I read this, I can really know what she felt.
14:58The passage also reveals how Agatha Christie must have had a wild streak to her.
15:04Maybe not that typical for an English lady of the time.
15:08And I believe that even though her public persona later in life was reserved, she always
15:15secretly retained this adventurous spirit.
15:28Through lots of practice, Agatha became highly adept at surfing.
15:35But I want to find out how unusual it was for a Western woman to take up this sport
15:39back in the 1920s.
15:43Carol Phillips should be able to help.
15:47Today many women surf in Hawaii, but it used to be very different.
15:53When I first started surfing back in 1984, I looked around in the water and there were
15:58no women.
15:59Really?
16:00Literally.
16:01And I was like, wow, this is, you know, what's going on here?
16:06Undeterred, Carol entered surfing competitions and set up a surf school taught entirely by
16:13women.
16:14But the surfing community was not impressed.
16:18They didn't roll out the red carpet exactly for us.
16:21Really?
16:22And we have dealt with over the years so much, you know, sexism.
16:27Yes.
16:28It's a kind of good old boy culture where they use the excuse, oh, the women, it's too
16:32dangerous for them.
16:34You're going to get hurt.
16:35You really had to fight your core.
16:36Oh, yeah.
16:37But because I had been able to conquer these waves.
16:40Yourself?
16:41Myself, you know, and I've got some dude, if I may use a surfer term, trying to tell
16:47me that what I can't do.
16:49This would fire you, I would imagine, into action.
16:52Yes.
16:53Right.
16:55That would be like a mild understatement.
16:58It's gotten me to this point in my latter years where I tell the younger girls, you
17:03just go out and you just be your surf star and let us fight this fight for you.
17:08But when you get older, you're going to have to do this, too.
17:10Yes.
17:11Like, we got your back now.
17:12Sorry.
17:13You know, and you do get a little emotional about it when you kind of live through it.
17:17I can tell you're getting emotional now talking about it.
17:19Right.
17:20I mean, this is something that is so dear to you.
17:22We're kind of on the other side of this, you know, we have achieved a lot.
17:25You really have.
17:26I'm going to go right back to the 1920s now when Agatha Christie would have been here
17:32and she had a passion for surfing.
17:35Was she sort of an outlier on her own or would there have been other women at that time doing
17:42it with her?
17:43She was an outlier for sure.
17:47The Agatha I've got to know on this Empire tour, she would have loved to be at a sort
17:51of, right, I'm going to be at the forefront of this now.
17:55She had a sense of independence and free spirit like that.
17:59Yes.
18:00And then this magic happens on the waves.
18:02She found this magical place called riding a wave and surfing and it captured her heart.
18:10In their own way, both Agatha Christie and Carol have helped encourage other women to
18:16take up the sport.
18:19Now women's surfing has just gotten through the roof and these young ladies are surfing
18:25at a level where, you know, nobody can question whether or not they should have an event out
18:30there.
18:31And it's just been so rewarding to see, you know.
18:35I think of this one girl from the North Shore, Moana Jones.
18:38Yes, the queen of surfers.
18:42The queen of pipeline.
18:43The queen of pipeline.
18:45Yes.
18:46And I'm following in the footsteps of the queen of crime.
18:51What a marriage.
18:52It's perfect.
18:53It's perfect.
18:58Agatha Christie, like me, must have had many preconceived notions about Hawaii.
19:04The palm trees, the beaches, even the famous volcanoes.
19:10But one element of Hawaii would have surprised Agatha.
19:16All the motor cars.
19:21By the early 1920s, Hawaii had fully embraced the automobile, with 9,000 cars in Honolulu
19:29alone.
19:31New roads crisscrossed the island and it must have seemed to Agatha that almost everyone
19:36had a car.
19:40When Agatha was young, owning a car would have been absolutely unimaginable for a person
19:46of her status.
19:48And what's more, cars were considered by many to be, wait for it, inappropriate for women.
19:55And in 1908, a newspaper stated that women have not the mechanical mind for cars, while
20:02another concluded that it's quite a mistake to suppose that driving a motor car is as
20:09easy as pushing a perambulator.
20:15But Agatha was a pioneer in helping overturn these old-fashioned prejudices.
20:21Part of a wider generation of other young women, who during World War I had stepped
20:26in as drivers for absent men.
20:30And I suspect that seeing so many modern cars here in Hawaii must have fuelled Agatha's
20:36enthusiasm.
20:39Agatha loved cars and driving.
20:43But it was only because of her growing success as a writer and her experiences during this
20:48empire tour, was she able to indulge this passion when she came back to the UK.
20:55In fact, her novel, written in 1924, The Man in the Brown Suit, a thriller that was totally
21:02inspired by her travels in South Africa, it was serialised.
21:06And she used the royalties from this to buy her very first car, a Morris Cowley.
21:12I think it must have been so exciting for her, and I'm sure it would have given her
21:17a sense of power and independence.
21:33You get a feel for Agatha's love of cars in her novels through the sentiments she gave
21:40her characters.
21:47In her book, The Hollow, Henrietta, the young heroine, was simply mad about cars.
21:54Agatha wrote,
21:55She much preferred to be alone when driving, in that way she could realise to the full
22:01the intimate personal enjoyment that driving a car brought to her.
22:07Agatha goes on,
22:09Henrietta spoke of cars with the lyrical intensity that other people gave to spring or the first
22:16snow drop.
22:18You know, for me, this is Agatha speaking.
22:23I mean, that mention of spring and snow drops gives me the perfect understanding of what
22:28she felt about driving a car.
22:30It's possibility, it's opportunity, and the excitement of what could be around the next corner.
22:43For Agatha, the exotic glamour of this holiday in Hawaii must have felt miles apart from
22:51her earlier travels through the British Empire.
22:56But the people of Hawaii had endured a colonisation story of their own.
23:03John?
23:04Hi, nice to meet you.
23:05Very nice to meet you, David.
23:07Professor John Rosa researches the history of Hawaii.
23:13These islands were first inhabited a thousand years ago by skilled Polynesian sailors.
23:21So Hawaii is the most isolated human populated place, you know, over a certain amount of people.
23:27On earth?
23:28On earth, yes.
23:29Wow.
23:30So getting here was a big deal.
23:31Yes.
23:32And actually an outsider, Captain James Cook, it's not until 1778 that the outside world
23:38literally puts Hawaii on a map for, let's say, Europe and the United States.
23:43But of course, you know, Pacific Islanders, native Hawaiians have known where this place
23:48is for centuries.
23:52Native Hawaiians ruled these islands until the end of the 1800s.
23:57It was around then that the USA began to challenge their independence.
24:03Hawaii is still a kingdom, a constitutional monarchy all the way up until the overthrow
24:09in 1893.
24:10Yes.
24:11There's a provisional or a temporary government led by American businessmen for the most part.
24:17And it's not until 1898 that the United States decides to, you know, essentially take Hawaii.
24:24Then Hawaii becomes a territory of the United States.
24:27And what happened to the royalty?
24:29The queen that was overthrown, Queen Liliuokalani, she lives into the 20th century until 1917.
24:38Very well respected by native Hawaiians, of course.
24:41Prince Kuhio is actually heir to the throne if Hawaii still had a kingdom.
24:45He sadly passes away in 1922, the same year that Agatha Christie is here.
24:50Right.
24:52The Americans had a vested interest in deposing the queen and taking over Hawaii.
24:59They were making a fortune out of sugarcane and pineapples, which grew easily in the fertile soil.
25:07When Agatha was here, she mentioned sugar plantations in particular and pineapples.
25:13Yes.
25:15The primary industry in the early 20th century would be sugar, which had been around since
25:20the mid-1800s.
25:22And by the early 1900s, pineapples were starting to be a larger and larger industry.
25:28And I think Agatha Christie, she was surprised, as many people are today, to see them growing
25:32like cabbages.
25:33Yes.
25:34And not from a tree.
25:35I thought they were great from a tree.
25:38All the labor needed for the plantations would radically alter the ethnic makeup of Hawaii.
25:46So when Agatha was here, was it multicultural?
25:49Oh, yes.
25:50Even by the 20s, it was certainly multi-ethnic.
25:53It's because sugar plantations require a great deal of labor, so we're going to have
25:58Chinese and Portuguese coming in the mid-1800s, Japanese in 1885 onward.
26:05Japanese?
26:06Yes, yes, coming from Japan.
26:08But if you jump forward to the 20th century, things really start to change, I would say.
26:14During the 20s, when Agatha Christie is here, a lot of that is the anticipation by the United
26:19States that there's going to be possibly a war with Japan at some point.
26:29You have a great deal of military buildup in the 1920s and in the 30s, preparing for
26:35the possibility of a major conflict with Japan.
26:38Even then?
26:39Yes, even then.
26:40In fact, it's in the early 20s that a significant portion of the U.S. Navy has naval exercises here.
26:47And you also have an increase in Navy personnel.
26:54As American sailors flooded into Hawaii for R&R, so tourists like Agatha were also beginning to arrive.
27:03Definitely by the early 20th century, you do have Americans who are coming and they're popularizing
27:10how beautiful Hawaii is and how it's a great stopping point to other parts of the Pacific.
27:16But it's usually a more elite, wealthy set of tourists who are coming by steamship.
27:22So Agatha was probably amongst a very few number of tourists at that time.
27:27Right, we're talking about slightly more than 10,000 per year in the 20s.
27:31And now?
27:32And now, about 9 or 10 million per year.
27:35That's a very significant number, isn't it?
27:38Yes.
27:39John, thank you so much.
27:40Sure, sure.
27:41You've made it all sort of like a jigsaw come together.
27:49The uneasy relationship between the American colonizers and native Hawaiians
27:55is highlighted by the story of a cultural art form.
28:02When Agatha was here in 1922, the famous dancing and music known as hula was already popular.
28:14The hula girl with her flowers and cellophane skirt was a powerful symbol of Hawaii.
28:20But what was presented as authentic was anything but.
28:25Now, in an attempt to preserve the real meaning of hula,
28:29Mapoana teaches the traditional version by going back to its origins.
28:36Agatha experienced the hula dancing, so what would she have seen?
28:39In the 1920s, she wouldn't see traditional hula.
28:42More than likely what she would have seen was what we call today hula awana.
28:47Yeah.
28:48And that is our more modern hula,
28:50because that's when Hawaii was being promoted as a tourist destination.
28:55I see.
28:56When you say traditional hula and the more modern hula,
28:59do forgive me, but the only hula I've ever seen,
29:02you remember the 1950 film Blue Hawaii.
29:05Yes.
29:06Yes.
29:11Elvis Presley, the grass skirts and the lei, that's the modern.
29:15That's the more modern, yes.
29:17Modern hula, the accompaniment is with stringed instruments,
29:21with the ukulele, the guitar, the bass, the piano, the steel guitar.
29:25It's very melodic and sometimes a little bit kolohe, a little bit rascal.
29:31Yes.
29:32I had an opportunity to learn the more traditional chanting,
29:36drumming, the more ancient dances that had been passed on from the 1800s,
29:42some from pre-contact.
29:44So the traditional hula goes way back.
29:48Way back, yes.
29:50Our older dances that we have maintained through generations are very sacred.
30:02Can men do hula?
30:03Anybody can do hula.
30:04Anybody?
30:05Yes.
30:06Right.
30:07Any gender, any age.
30:08The hula and how it's presented all depends on the story,
30:12the purpose of it, what the message is.
30:15They all have very clear messages.
30:19You're actually talking about a form of movement that is a language.
30:26Yes.
30:27I mean, a communication.
30:28Exactly.
30:29But you're talking about a language that goes way back before the written word.
30:34Yes.
30:35Our history has all been orally transmitted until the missionaries came.
30:40And started writing things down.
30:42And then it became written down for the first time.
30:44Yes.
30:45That's very interesting.
30:46Yes.
30:47Around the corner here we have a group that's practicing
30:50one of our ancient dances that's pre-contact.
30:53This is a prophecy chant that foresees that our temples will come down.
30:59And the chants go back how many years?
31:01Probably to the 1600s, 1700s.
31:04I want to introduce you to David.
31:07Hello.
31:08This is David.
31:09What a pleasure to meet you.
31:10We're going to take it from the beginning.
31:12Make yourself comfortable right there.
31:31Over the centuries, Kula has been through extraordinary changes.
31:39The dance originated as a religious practice.
31:42Then in the 19th century, public displays were banned for being too vulgar.
31:50Since the 1920s, Kula has been a highly effective tourist attraction.
32:00Now finally, Mapuana is returning Kula to its roots.
32:17My goodness.
32:19That was absolutely amazing.
32:21Thank you all so much.
32:23And I have to confess I have never seen anything resembling
32:28what you have just demonstrated ever in my life.
32:32You must be exhausted.
32:34I just want to ask you one thing.
32:36How do you feel while you are dancing this particular type of hula?
32:43I feel powerful dancing this hula
32:46because it's about holding on to our culture and our traditions.
32:50That's important.
32:53What a wonderful answer.
32:56Mapuana hopes that by reinvigorating the traditional form of hula,
33:01Kula will allow people to discover what the real Hawaii is all about.
33:08You know, living here in Hawaii, we're challenged every day.
33:11There are so many outside influences that can take us into the Western world.
33:17Those dances need to be shared and seen over and over and over
33:21so that we are connected to this very earth that we come from
33:26and that we don't evolve into something that doesn't feel Hawaiian anymore.
33:32It says to me something about the basic nature of being human as well.
33:39Yes.
33:41The arrival of outsiders into Hawaii didn't just have an impact on the people.
33:47The industries the Americans introduced also dramatically altered the landscape.
33:55Over the last century, much of the environment has been devastated.
34:00It's not just the landscapes.
34:03So I was fascinated to hear about a group of farmers
34:06who are restoring parts of the ancient rainforest.
34:12Lawrence has offered to show me how this area has changed.
34:17The land that we're driving through right now,
34:19as far as you can see to your right and as far as you can see to your left,
34:23a hundred years ago, this was a desert.
34:26It was a desert.
34:28As far as you can see to your right and as far as you can see to your left,
34:31a hundred years ago, would have been sugarcane.
34:35So that would have been sugarcane when Agatha Christie came here in the 1920s.
34:38There would have been a lot of sugarcane,
34:40and then there still is some pineapple over on that ridge there,
34:42but all of this area would have been planted to either one of those.
34:45Right.
34:47To create the plantations of the late 1800s,
34:51much of the original forest was chopped down.
34:54The pristine woodland was no more.
34:57It was probably as close to a perfect ecosystem that had been untouched forever.
35:03Native forests filled with native animals,
35:06and it was completely destroyed.
35:12Now, at the north end of the island,
35:14Lawrence and his team are successfully restoring a key section of rainforest.
35:21So here we are. That's our farm.
35:23And that is the forest.
35:26And what's really, really cool is there wasn't anything over six inches tall when we started.
35:31And now, 15 years later, there's 60-foot mahogany trees.
35:34It's incredible.
35:35Mahogany.
35:36Mahogany, koa.
35:38Most places you don't expect to see a forest go from nothing to 50 or 60 feet over your head in your lifetime.
35:44No.
35:47These farmers are bringing back the ancient forest in order to produce a new crop.
35:54The trees of the rainforest encourage the growth of cacao trees,
35:58which the farmers then use to make chocolate.
36:05At the farm.
36:06You won't get lost. Don't worry.
36:10Ah, hi.
36:13I meet up with Seneca, the business partner of Lawrence,
36:16and the key driver of the cacao operation.
36:21We've got thousands and thousands of hardwood trees working together with thousands of cacao trees
36:26to produce cocoa pods, cocoa beans that we make chocolate out of.
36:29Lawrence was telling me that they protect the cacao tree.
36:33Yeah.
36:34The hardwood trees, they hold space for the cacao tree.
36:36They protect it from the wind and the sun, and they hold the soil together, too.
36:39So they're protecting the entire site in a whole envelope of lovely care.
36:44I just adore chocolate.
36:46The character that I play, Hercule Poirot, adores chocolate.
36:50He goes to bed every single night with a cup of hot chocolate and his Bible.
36:55I'm not sure what he does first, read the Bible or drink the chocolate.
36:58I think he drinks the chocolate.
37:00Why don't we go into the orchard and get a closer look at some of the cacao?
37:03Fantastic. Thank you.
37:06Out working in the fields is Duke.
37:10So here we have a ripe cacao pod on the tree.
37:15I've never seen this ever in my life.
37:18The only thing I've ever seen is chocolate wrapped up on a supermarket shelf.
37:21Sure. I mean, I think that's pretty common for most folks.
37:24So when it's this size, it's ready for picking.
37:27Yeah.
37:29Wow. Can I touch it?
37:31Yes.
37:33We can even pick it and take it out the tree and see what's inside.
37:43Oh, my goodness. Oh, my goodness me.
37:46Wow.
37:48There it is. Have a smell.
37:51Oh, my goodness.
37:53Oh, my goodness.
37:55There it is. Have a smell.
37:58It's a delicious tropical fruit.
38:01That's amazing.
38:03Yeah.
38:04It's like an animal coming.
38:06Yeah. For folks who aren't used to it, it can be a little bit kind of a shocking fruit to see.
38:11It's very typical tropical fruit. It's custardy. It's a little viscous and slimy.
38:15But if you'd like to grab a couple of those seeds, just pop them in your mouth and suck on them.
38:19From this?
38:20Yeah. Do you want me to hand them to you?
38:21Yes.
38:22So just take two or three of these.
38:24Just go into the seeds. It's a little bitter. Just suck on them.
38:33Wow.
38:36That's extraordinary.
38:38Just straight out of the pod, in my mouth.
38:41It tastes citrusy, like almost lemon.
38:44Yeah, it is a tropical fruit.
38:47I've never tasted anything like it.
38:49It's one of my favourites, yeah. We're snacking up here all day.
38:53How does this become chocolate?
38:57What we're after is what's inside there.
39:00So all that purple mass, that's the future chocolate.
39:03How amazing.
39:05The fruit's super important, though, because it's the fuel for the fermentation
39:08that's going to condition this seed and allow it to taste like chocolate.
39:11Goodness me.
39:12Well, Lawrence is going to bring us an even better treat that comes from our harvest.
39:17What's this?
39:18Well, I just happened to have here a bar of Lonohana Estate chocolate.
39:22Oh, my goodness.
39:24To be able to taste that chocolate in the farm, we thought would be pretty cool.
39:29If you let it melt, you'll get the most story from the flavour.
39:39That is beautiful.
39:43It's fantastic.
39:45I mean, to eat this here after I've seen the pod open, the fruit, and now this,
39:50I'm not kidding, this is really something very special.
39:55What a treat.
39:59I'm so impressed these farmers managed to create delicious chocolate
40:04while simultaneously restoring part of the rainforest.
40:10When Agatha was here, it was just barren and bare,
40:13and the sugar cane plantations just depleted the whole landscape.
40:20And then to come here in this almost like a grove full of greens,
40:24full of wonderful positive energy, I really feel it in here.
40:30I feel, I mean, it may sound stupid, but I really feel all the trees here
40:35are so happy to be here, and they're giving to us and they're giving to them.
40:44I just find it extraordinary.
40:49Hawaii
41:03Before I got here, my understanding of Hawaii
41:07was based largely on all those clichés associated with the island,
41:12many of which were born in the 1920s when Agatha was here.
41:17But I've found the real Hawaii to be far more interesting,
41:22and I'm sure that Agatha was equally fascinated.
41:26And that's why I'm keen to find out how Agatha's travels influenced her writing.
41:32And so I'm meeting Professor Michel Kajma, an expert on crime literature.
41:39I think that by reading her books, especially in the 20s and 30s,
41:44the content and the travel seems to me very dominant
41:50compared to other literature at the time.
41:53Yes, Agatha, she loved to travel, and it's reflected in her work.
41:57You see every mode of travel.
41:59I mean, people are traveling in The Secret Adversary,
42:01and they're traveling all the way through.
42:03Nemesis is a travel-oriented book.
42:05Passenger to Frankfurt is a travel-oriented book.
42:08So she never leaves that love for travel aside.
42:11And the other thing I've noticed, especially in her portrayal of young women,
42:17especially in the early books, she writes women with passionate feelings.
42:22Yes.
42:23So when we talk about a reserved, shy, reclusive Agatha Christie,
42:30this is not the Agatha Christie I've met on the Empire Tour.
42:33Oh, absolutely not.
42:35She's surfing in Hawaii. She loves to get into the ocean.
42:39She likes to play golf. She likes to go on long walks.
42:42She's just a very physically vigorous person.
42:45My goodness, haven't I experienced in her footsteps, my goodness me.
42:50Do you think a lot of her travels have influenced her writing?
42:54Oh, absolutely, and in fact, islands, right, like this one.
42:58Islands show up in her books all the time because islands are a wonderful literary device.
43:03I mean, they're beautiful places to be,
43:05a way to accumulate people of different social strata, different personality types
43:10who wouldn't necessarily normally all be together in one place.
43:13And you get them isolated from their normal lives,
43:16so they also might behave in ways that they don't typically behave.
43:20So anytime we can travel and get people isolated in a setting
43:24is a perfect setting for a crime novel.
43:26Yes.
43:27And the fact that she did all of this travel herself means that she can also talk about
43:31the logistics and the practicalities of travel in a very realistic way
43:36and sometimes even the inconveniences of travel.
43:38So whether it's standing in line at Cook's to buy a ticket
43:42or waiting for a porter to get your luggage and just sort of standing there, you know, haplessly.
43:47But what's interesting with Poirot is, yes, he does travel, but he doesn't like it.
43:53No, he doesn't like it at all. Absolutely.
43:55But she has great fun with him because he doesn't like it.
43:59I think she's a great people observer in her normal life.
44:05I mean, I knew Harold Pinter very well and I knew that he would listen to people on buses
44:09and things like that, but I think if she was here on this beach,
44:14she would be watching people, she'd be observing people and absorbing this into herself
44:19and working out, well, maybe I can use that person in a story.
44:23Would you agree with that?
44:24Absolutely. And she never wanted it to be anybody she knew well.
44:27She avoided people she knew well, but I have a feeling if she were here at this moment,
44:31she would be noticing what they were wearing, how they were walking
44:34and sort of extrapolating reasons why they were acting the way they were
44:37and building backstories as she went and then, of course, frantically writing it down
44:41in the notebooks that she kept with her. Absolutely.
44:44I know that Agatha Christie is your chosen and specific calling or subject.
44:51For sure.
44:52Do you think that she genuinely deserves the title the Queen of Crime?
44:59Absolutely. For anything that you can think about crime fiction, Agatha either did it first.
45:05If she didn't do it first, she did it best and often she did it both.
45:08So when you say, oh, this has been overdone, it's been done too many times, it's trite.
45:13No, but she's the one who invented it.
45:15And if she didn't, she's the one who did the canonically best form of it.
45:20And I absolutely stand by that. She was absolutely brilliant start to finish.
45:30I'm coming to the end of my adventures in Hawaii.
45:36I've had an unforgettable experience, just as Agatha did a century ago.
45:45I think Agatha's time here with Archie was very special for them both.
45:49For Archie, a chance to get away from all his duties in the Empire mission.
45:53And for Agatha, a chance to spend quality time with the husband who she loved so much.
46:00And a holiday here must have been something that most Brits in the 1920s could have only dreamed of.
46:07And Agatha threw herself into so many activities, her favourite, of course, being surfing.
46:14But all good things must come to an end, and so it was with their holiday.
46:19And they had to prepare for the itinerary of the Empire mission.
46:24And their next stop, and mine, Canada.