Original subtitles

♪♪

Suchet: In August 1922,

a young English woman arrived at an island paradise

in the South Pacific.

Her name, Agatha Christie.

♪♪

In Agatha's later novels,

islands would be the setting for murder, lies and betrayal.

But no such darkness blighted her stay here.

Instead, she dedicated herself to a most unlikely sport.

For this, she needed a wooden board, a sense of adventure

and a large dash of true English grit.

Agatha Christie had taken up surfing.

We all know the cliché of Agatha being shy

and reclusive and reserved.

But I think that this need for the rush,

the thrill, the race of life,

was in her all the time,

even as an elderly lady -- this need to tap

into the wildness of the human spirit.

And this was the perfect place

for her to indulge her new passion -- Hawaii.

♪♪

Before Agatha Christie was famous,

she travelled the world with her husband Archie.

The couple were part of a special mission,

tasked with championing the upcoming

British Empire Exhibition.

Held in London in 1924,

it was designed to boost trade

and strengthen the bonds between nations.

Now, a century later, I'm following in her footsteps.

I'm David Suchet and I played Agatha Christie's

most famous detective, Hercule Poirot,

for 25 years.

Armed with my trusty camera I'm recreating Agatha's

incredible journey through Southern Africa,

Canada, Australia...

and New Zealand.

-Welcome. -Thank you.

Suchet: And I'm now following Agatha on her holiday to Hawaii.

-Here we have a cacao pod. -I love chocolate!

Oh, my goodness me, wow!

I want to find out what was happening

in these countries in the 1920s.

And learn about the legacy of colonialism.

We want that which belongs to Africa to return back to Africa.

And through seeing what Agatha saw...

Suchet: That is extraordinary.

Suchet:... I'll discover more about the woman

whose work has played such a pivotal part in my own career.

She embraced life for all it was worth.

Wow, what a discovery.

♪♪

♪♪

Agatha's adventures in Hawaii began on August 5, 1922,

when she and her husband Archie

arrived here after a two-week steamship voyage

from New Zealand.

What she and Archie witnessed must have been

beyond their wildest dreams.

A riot of colour from flowers and tropical trees.

A landscape unlike anything they'd experienced.

And perhaps most important of all - a place

where they could finally have a break.

So far, Agatha's journeys through the various dominions

had been a whirlwind of activity -- meeting dignitaries,

attending dinners, listening to endless speeches

and touring around factories and farms.

But now, coming here on holiday with her beloved Archie;

it actually must have been a real tonic.

Their visit to Hawaii,

situated bang in the middle of the Pacific Ocean,

wasn't part of their "Empire Tour".

At the time Hawaii had little to do with Britain,

rather it was an American territory.

The couple first stayed at Honolulu, the capital of Hawaii.

A place where the welcome from the people

is as warm as the surrounding sea...

-Sylvia. -Hey, Aloha.

-Hello. -How are you?

I'm very well.

But I said that -- did I say that right?

-Hello? Or should I say... -Yes. It's very British.

-[ Laughs ] So, what -- what... -It's okay.

I'm, but I am British.

You tell me how to say it properly.

-Aloha. -Aloha.

-Aloha. -Oh!

Welcome to Hawaii.

It goes nicely with your shirt.

-Oh! -Aloha.

What a wonderful tradition.

[ Laughing ] Yes.

Suchet: Back in 1922, as today,

visitors were welcomed to the island

with flower garlands, known as leis.

Sylvia is an expert at weaving them.

I know of no other country

where you greet people with something like a lei.

-Yes, right. Exactly. -What's the tradition?

The tradition is, all of Hawaii, every island,

they literally have flora and fauna everywhere.

And in the early 1900s,

they did start putting together leis with needles and thread

into different creations

and depends on the seasons in the year.

You can even get, this takes, 350 to 400 flowers.

-How did that begin? -I would say tourism.

-Really? Yes, tourism.

How long -- how long ago would that have been?

It started with the steamships. So all the lei makers.

Only the days that the boat would arrive at Aloha Tower.

-Suchet: Aha -Kop: Which is a real place.

They had leis for 10 cents and leis for 25 cents.

-Suchet: So it was a business. -Kop: Yes.

Aah, and when Agatha Christie came here in 1920?

That's when it first started.

To greet and welcome the tourist.

-What a lovely thing. -Yes, it's lovely.

How long did it take you to learn this craft?

I'm learning all the time.

-Yes. -[ Both laugh ]

Kop: Literally learning all the time.

But is it passed on, the skill?

-Yes. -Started as a little girl?

Every child in Hawaii learns to make lei.

We do it all our lives.

This is the most difficult lei style,

which is called "Haku" weaving,

and it has a scent.

People love lei with scent.

So, can you smell it?

Wow, that's lovely.

And are they different lengths, these...

Well, in Agatha Christie's time,

they were all the way down past your belly.

-Whoa! Really long. -Down to your hips.

Yeah. Oh!

I did make it the extra-long length.

-But that's beautiful. -Yes.

Were there any leis before tourism at all?

Wearing greenery for the warriors and the men --

it was about a hat, a shade,

a green warrior headband made to be worn on the head like this.

Oh.

So, this is four different kinds of greenery.

So, just smell it. Can you smell it?

Yeah. Very, very strong, isn't it? It's very --

So, this one plant is like a menthol.

Yes.

But that's what Hawaiians wanted to wear

because it gave them that aroma and scent.

How interesting.

And this would have been made for my wrist.

So you have someone you can give that to?

I do. I have someone very special.

Well, you could put it in the hair.

-Thank you. -You're welcome.

♪♪

Suchet: Like many visitors to Honolulu,

Agatha stayed at the beachfront's best hotel,

the Moana.

The hotel had been opened in 1901,

the first major hotel built on the island

and every one of its 75 rooms the height of luxury.

The hotel even possessed the first

electric-powered elevator in Hawaii.

From their balcony, the Christies

would have been able to observe the sport

that helped make Hawaii famous...

surfing.

But Agatha wasn't content just to watch.

Agatha was a fan of surfing.

Well, actually, not just a fan, she was passionate about it.

And I think this passion originated possibly

very early on in the tour in South Africa,

when she and Archie used to creep away as much

as they could from committee meetings and surf

and enjoy the sea.

But there were only brief periods that they could snatch.

But now, on holiday, they could really indulge

in riding those waves.

Well, at least attempt to.

This extraordinary photo shows Agatha standing proudly

in front of her surfboard, presumably borrowed from Fred.

While the composition of the photo is formal,

the swimming costume she wears is most informal,

especially compared to Agatha's usual attire.

I love this portrait,

as it captures an unexpected side of her personality,

a part of her that is little-known.

By the 1920s, a tradition had been established

where local Hawaiians helped visitors surf.

Known as the "Beach Boys,"

you can still spot them on Waikiki Beach, Honolulu.

Come on over here, reach down, grab the board

and lie down on your belly.

Alright. Now hold the board here.

Now arch your back. Think yoga.

Don't let the board hit you in the face.

-You know why? -Yeah.

-It hurts. -Yeah.

[ Laughter ]

Suchet: Todd has been a Beach Boy for over 30 years

and was taught by the generation before.

Right foot up and now release.

-And smile. -[ Laughs ]

[ Camera shutter clicking ]

Go ahead, Gerald. Go deep water.

Suchet: He's off. So, that was the whole lesson?

-No. That -- -[ Both laugh ]

That was just the beginning.

Okay. So, he learnt how to sit on the board?

Correct.

You were doing some wonderful arm gestures.

-Yes. -What was this?

This is the paddling technique.

Oh, that's the paddling technique. Okay.

This is the critical part of the whole thing.

And then you were teaching him how to stand or --

Correct. What I showed him was your basic

Waikiki four-step technique.

The Waikiki four-step technique.

Correct. Taught to me by the old fellows.

All certified teachers?

They were all certified teachers.

In those days, the Beach Boys controlled the beach,

and we had to get a blue card from the state,

a licence that allowed you to do it.

-Wow. -Yes, it was very rigorous.

-Very rigorous. -Yes.

What's your whole ethos?

Well, they say we're ambassadors of aloha.

Beach Boys are ambassadors of aloha.

-I love that! Is it dangerous?

Of course! Surfing's very dangerous.

But these waves -- they don't look huge-huge,

but they're very powerful?

Yeah. And even on a small wave,

the board can hit you in the head.

or somebody else's board can hit you in the head.

I've pulled plenty of people out of the water.

-that were in distress. -What about the early days,

like when Agatha Christie might have been here?

Well, like in the 1920s?

Those were the days

when Duke and his brothers controlled the beach.

-Right. -And they took people out.

And they would go together.

Suchet: The most famous Beach Boy of

Agatha Christie's time was Duke Kahanamoku.

He was a superb athlete

and won gold for swimming at the 1920 Olympics.

But Duke's real love was surfing,

and more than any other individual,

he promoted the sport in Hawaii.

One of the Beach Boys helped Agatha surf

and was on hand in case she got into difficulty.

And she often did.

Agatha cut her feet on coral.

She was frequently half-drowned by the waves.

And, perhaps most alarmingly,

one time, her swimming costume was largely ripped off.

Yet, these disasters simply spurred her on.

You make me feel I want to have a go,

but I'm not going to do it.

-I'm not going to do it. -Well...we can.

No, but it sounds so releasing if you can do it.

-Absolutely. -And what's it feel like

when you're actually standing on that board?

It feels great.

You see, I think what surfing does is taps into the wildness

-in the human spirit. -I love that.

Because that's what's so attractive about it.

That's why everybody wants to do it.

Yes.

♪♪

Suchet: Agatha once described in writing

what it felt like to catch and ride the wave, and I quote.

"Oh, it was heaven. Nothing like it.

Nothing like that rushing through the water

at what seems to you a speed of about 200 miles per hour.

All the way in from the far distant raft

until you arrived, gently slowing down, on the beach,

and foundered among the soft-flowing waves.

It is one of the most perfect physical pleasures

I have ever known."

Gosh, what a beautiful description.

That's so vivid.

I can tell. When I read this, I can really know what she felt.

The passage also reveals

how Agatha Christie must have had a wild streak to her --

maybe not that typical for an English lady of the time.

And I believe that even though her public persona later in life

was reserved,

she always secretly retained this adventurous spirit.

♪♪

Through lots of practice, Agatha became highly adept at surfing,

but I want to find out how unusual it was

for a Western woman to take up this sport back in the 1920s.

Carol Philips should be able to help.

Today, many women surf in Hawaii,

but it used to be very different.

When I first started surfing, back in 1984,

I looked around in the water, and there were no women.

-Really? -Literally.

And I was like, "Wow.

This is -- You know, what's going on here?"

Suchet: Undeterred, Carol entered surfing competitions

and set up a surf school taught entirely by women.

But the surfing community was not impressed.

They didn't roll out the red carpet exactly for us.

Really?

And we have dealt with, over the years,

so much, you know, sexism,

this kind of good-old-boy culture

where they use the excuse, "Oh, the women --

it's too dangerous for them, you're going to get hurt."

You really had to fight your corner?

Oh, yeah.

But because I had been able to conquer these waves --

-Yourself. -Myself.

You know, and I've got some "dude,"

if I may use a surfer term,

trying to tell me that -- what I can't do.

This would fire you, I would imagine, into action.

Yes! Right. That would be, like, a mild understatement.

It's gotten me to this point in my latter years

where I tell the younger girls,

"You just go out and you just be your surf star

and let us fight this fight for you,

but when you get older, you're going to have to do this, too.

Like, we got your back now." Sorry.

You know, and you do get a little emotional about it,

when you kind of lived through it.

-But I can tell. -Yeah.

You're getting emotional now talking about it.

I mean, this is something that is so dear to you.

And kind of on the other side of this,

you know, we have achieved a lot.

You really have.

I'm going to go right back to the 1920s now,

when Agatha Christie would have been here,

and she had a passion for surfing.

Was she sort of an outlier on her own

or would there have been other women at that time

doing it with her?

She was an outlier for sure.

Suchet: The Agatha I've got to know on this Empire Tour,

she would have loved to be the sort of, "Right.

I'm going to be at the forefront of this now."

She had a sense of independence and free spirit like that.

Yes. And then this magic happened on the waves.

She found this magical place called riding a wave

and surfing, and it captured her heart.

Suchet: In their own way, both Agatha Christie and Carol

have helped encourage other women to take up the sport.

Now women's surfing has just gotten through the roof,

and these young ladies are surfing at a level

where, you know, they're -- nobody can question

whether or not they should have an event out there,

and it's just been so rewarding to see, you know?

I think of this one girl from the North Shore, Moana Jones.

Suchet: Yes, the Queen of Surfers?

-The Queen of Pipeline. -The Queen of Pipelining.

Yes.

And I'm following in the footsteps of the Queen of Crime.

-What a marriage. -Oh, it's perfect.

It's perfect!

♪♪

Suchet: Agatha Christie, like me,

must have had many preconceived notions about Hawaii --

the palm trees, the beaches, even the famous volcanoes.

But one element of Hawaii would've surprised Agatha...

-[ Horn honks ] -...all the motorcars.

By the early 1920s,

Hawaii had fully embraced the automobile,

with 9,000 cars in Honolulu alone.

New roads criss-crossed the island,

and it must have seemed to Agatha

that almost everyone had a car.

When Agatha was young,

owning a car would have been absolutely unimaginable

for a person of her status.

And what's more, cars were considered by many to be --

wait for it -- "inappropriate for women."

And in 1908, a newspaper stated that

"Women have not the mechanical mind" for cars.

While another concluded that,

"It's quite a mistake to suppose that driving a motorcar

is as easy as pushing a perambulator."

But Agatha was a pioneer in helping overturn

these old-fashioned prejudices,

part of a wider generation of other young women,

who during, World War I,

had stepped in as drivers for absent men.

And I suspect that seeing so many modern cars here in Hawaii

must have fuelled Agatha's enthusiasm.

Agatha loved cars and driving.

But it was only because of her growing success as a writer

and her experiences during this Empire Tour

was she able to indulge this passion

when she came back to the UK.

In fact, her novel written in 1924,

"The Man In the Brown Suit," a thriller

that was totally inspired by her travels in South Africa,

it was serialised, and she used the royalties from this

to buy her very first car -- a Morris Cowley.

I think it must have been so exciting for her.

And I'm sure it would have given her a sense

of power and independence.

♪♪

♪♪

You get a feel for Agatha's love of cars in her novels,

through the sentiments she gave her characters.

In her book "The Hollow," Henrietta, the young heroine,

was simply mad about cars.

Agatha wrote, "She much preferred

to be alone when driving.

In that way, she could realise to the full

the intimate personal enjoyment

that driving a car brought to her."

Agatha goes on,

"Henrietta spoke of cars with the lyrical intensity

that other people gave to spring or the first snowdrop."

You know, for me, this is Agatha speaking.

I mean, that mention of spring and snowdrops

gives me the perfect understanding of what she felt

about driving a car.

It's possibility, it's opportunity,

and the excitement of what could be around the next corner.

For Agatha, the exotic glamour of this holiday

in Hawaii must have felt miles apart from her earlier travels

though the British Empire.

Yet, the people of Hawaii

had endured a colonisation story of their own.

-John? -Hi. Nice to meet you.

Very nice to meet you. David.

Professor John Rosa researches the history of Hawaii.

These islands were first inhabited 1,000 years ago

by skilled Polynesian sailors.

So, Hawaii is the most isolated, human-populated place, you know,

over a certain amount of people.

-On Earth. -Oh Earth, yes.

Wow! So getting here was a big deal.

Yes. And, actually, an outsider, Captain James Cook --

it's not until 1778

that the outside world literally puts Hawaii on a map for,

let's say, Europe and the United States.

But, of course, you know, Pacific Islanders,

Native Hawaiians have known where this place is...

-Of course. -...for centuries.

Suchet: Native Hawaiians ruled these islands

until the end of the 1800's.

It was around then that the U.S.A.

began to challenge their independence.

Hawaii was still a kingdom, a constitutional monarchy

all the way up until the overthrow in 1893.

-Yes. -There's a provisional,

or a temporary, government led by American businessmen

for the most part.

And it's not until 1898

that the United States decides to, you know,

essentially take Hawaii.

Then Hawaii becomes a territory of the United States.

And what happened to the royalty?

Well, the queen that was overthrown?

-Yes. -Queen Lili'uokalani.

She lives into the 20th century, until 1917,

very well respected by native Hawaiians, of course.

Prince Kuhio is actually heir to the throne,

if Hawaii still had a kingdom,

and he sadly passes away in 1922,

the same year that Agatha Christie is here.

Right.

Suchet: The Americans had a vested interest

in deposing the queen and taking over Hawaii.

They were making a fortune out of sugarcane and pineapples,

which grew easily in the fertile soil.

When Agatha was here,

she mentioned sugar plantations in particular,

and pineapples.

Yes. So, the primary industry in the early 20th century

would be sugar, which had been around since the mid-1800s,

and by the early 1900s, pineapples

were starting to be a larger and larger industry.

And I think Agatha Christie -- she was surprised,

as many people are today, to see them growing like cabbages

you know, and not from a tree, right?

I thought they were growing from a tree.

Suchet: All the labour needed for the plantations

would radically alter the ethnic make-up of Hawaii.

So, when Agatha was here, was it multicultural?

Oh, yes. Even by the '20s, it was certainly multiethnic.

It's because sugar plantations require a great deal of labour.

So we're going to have Chinese and Portuguese

coming in the mid-1800s.

Japanese in 1885 onward.

-Japanese? -Yes. Yes, coming from Japan.

But if you jump forward to the 20th century,

things really start to change, I would say, during the '20s,

when Agatha Christie is here.

A lot of that is the anticipation

by the United States that there's going to be

possibly a war with Japan at some point.

You have a great deal of military build-up

in the 1920s and in the '30s,

preparing for the possibility of a major conflict with Japan.

-Even then? -Yes, even then.

In fact, it's in the early '20s

that a significant portion of the U.S. Navy

has naval exercises here.

And you also have an increase in Navy personnel.

Suchet: As American sailors flooded

into Hawaii for R&R, so tourists, like Agatha,

were also beginning to arrive.

Definitely, by the early 20th century,

you do have Americans who are coming,

and they're popularising how beautiful Hawaii is and

how it's a great stopping point to other parts of the Pacific.

But it's usually a more elite,

wealthy set of tourists who are coming by steamship.

So Agatha was probably amongst a very few number

of tourists at that --

Right. We're talking about slightly more than 10,000

per year in the '20s.

-And now? -And now,

about 9 or 10 million per year.

That's a very significant number, isn't it?

Yes.

-John, thank you so much. -Sure, sure.

You've made it all sort of, like a jigsaw, come together.

Suchet: The uneasy relationship between the American colonisers

and native Hawaiians is highlighted by the story

of a cultural art form.

When Agatha was here in 1922,

the famous dancing and music known as hula

was already popular.

The hula girl, with her flowers and cellophane skirt,

was a powerful symbol of Hawaii,

but what was presented as authentic was anything but.

Now, in an attempt to preserve the real meaning of hula,

Mapuana teaches the traditional version

by going back to its origins.

Agatha experienced the hula dancing,

so what would she have seen?

In the 1920s, she wouldn't see traditional hula.

More than likely, what she would have seen

was what we call today hula ohana.

And that is our more modern hula, because that's

when Hawaii was being promoted as a tourist destination.

I see.

When you say traditional hula and the more modern hula,

do forgive me, but the only hula I've ever seen --

You remember the 1950 film "Blue Hawaii."

-Yes. -Yes.

Elvis: ♪ Let's go on a moonlight swim ♪

Suchet: Elvis Presley and the grass skirts and the lei.

-Yes. Yes. -That's the modern?

-That's the more modern, yes. -Okay.

Modern hula, the accompaniment is with stringed instruments,

with the ukulele, the guitar, the bass, the piano,

the steel guitar.

It's very melodic and sometimes a little bit kolohe,

-a little bit rascal. -Yes.

I had an opportunity to learn the more traditional chanting,

drumming, the more ancient dances

that had been passed on from the 1800s, some from pre-contact.

So the traditional hula goes way back.

Way back, yes.

Our older dances that we have maintained

through generations are very sacred.

[ Woman chanting in native language ]

-Can men do hula? -Anybody can do hula.

-Anybody. Right. -Yes.

Any gender, any age.

The hula and how it's presented all depends on the story,

the purpose of it, what the message is.

They all have very clear messages.

You're actually talking about a form of movement

that is a language.

-Yes. -I mean a communication.

Exactly.

But you're talking about a language that goes way back,

-before the written word. -Way back. Yes.

Our history has all been orally transmitted

until the missionaries came and started writing things down.

And then it became written down for the first time.

-Yes. -That's very interesting.

Around the corner here, we have a group

that's practising one of our ancient dances

that's pre-contact.

Oh, how great.

This is a prophecy chant that foresees

that our temples will come down.

And the chants go back how many years?

Probably to the 1600s, 1700s.

I want to introduce you to David.

-Hello. -This is David.

What a pleasure to meet you.

We're going to take it from the beginning.

Make yourself comfortable right there.

Suchet: Over the centuries,

hula has been through extraordinary changes.

The dance originated as a religious practice.

Then, in the 19th century,

public displays were banned for being too vulgar.

Since the 1920s,

hula's been a highly effective tourist attraction.

And now, finally, Mapuana is returning hula to its roots.

My goodness. That was absolutely amazing.

Thank you all so much.

And I have to confess,

I have never seen anything resembling what you

have just demonstrated ever in my life.

You must be exhausted. I just want to ask you one thing.

What do you feel

while you're dancing this particular type of hula?

I feel powerful dancing this hula,

because it's about holding on to our culture and our traditions.

That's important.

Thank you. What a wonderful answer.

Mapuana hopes

that by reinvigorating the traditional form of hula,

she'll allow people to discover what

the real Hawaii is all about.

You know, living here in Hawaii, we're challenged every day.

There's so many outside influences

that can take us into the Western world.

Those dances need to be shared and seen over and over and over

so that we are connected to this very Earth

that we come from and that we don't evolve into something

that doesn't feel Hawaiian anymore.

It says to me something about the basic nature

of being human, as well.

Yes.

Suchet: The arrival of outsiders into Hawaii

didn't just have an impact on the people.

The industries the Americans introduced

also dramatically altered the landscape.

Over the last century, much of the environment

has been devastated.

So I was fascinated to hear about a group of farmers

who are restoring parts of the ancient rainforest.

Lawrence has offered to show me how this area has changed.

The land that we're driving through right now,

as far as you can see to your right

and as far as you can see to your left,

100 years ago, would have been sugarcane.

So, that would have been sugarcane

when Agatha Christie came here in the 1920s?

There would have been a lot of sugarcane.

And then there still is some pineapple over

on that ridge there, but there would have --

all of this area would have been planted to either one of those.

Right.

Suchet: To create the plantations of the late 1800s,

much of the original forest was chopped down.

The pristine woodland was no more.

It was probably as close to a perfect ecosystem

that had been untouched forever.

Native forests filled with native animals,

and it was completely destroyed.

Suchet: Now, at the north end of the island,

Lawrence and his team

are successfully restoring a key section of rainforest.

Boone: So, here we are. That's our farm.

And that is the forest.

And what's really, really cool is there wasn't

anything over 6 inches tall when we started.

And now 15 years later, there's 60-foot mahogany trees.

-It's incredible. -Wow. Mahogany.

Boone: Mahogany, koa.

Most places, you don't expect to see a forest go from nothing to,

50 or 60 feet over your head in your lifetime.

No.

Suchet: These farmers are bringing back the ancient forest

in order to produce a new crop.

The trees of the rainforest encourage the growth

of cacao trees, which the farmers

then use to make chocolate.

At the farm...

You won't get lost. Don't worry.

Suchet: Ah! Hi!

...I meet up with Seneca, the business partner of Lawrence

and the key driver of the cacao operation.

We've got thousands and thousands of hardwood trees

working together with thousands of cacao trees

to produce cocoa pods,

cocoa beans that we make chocolate out of.

Lawrence was telling me that they protect the cacao tree.

Yeah. The hardwood trees hold space for the cacao tree.

They protect it from the wind and the sun

and they hold the soil together, too.

So they're protecting the entire site

in a whole envelope of lovely care.

I just adore chocolate.

And, so, well, the character that I play, Hercule Poirot,

adores chocolate.

I mean, he goes to bed every single night with a cup

of hot chocolate and his Bible.

I'm not sure what he does first --

first read the Bible or drink the chocolate,

but I think he drinks the chocolate.

Yeah. Why don't we go into the orchard

and get a closer look at some of the cacao.

Fantastic. Thank you.

♪♪

Out working in the fields is Duke.

So, here, we have a ripe cacao pod on the tree.

I've never seen this ever in my life.

The only thing I've ever seen

is chocolate wrapped up on a supermarket shelf, so...

Sure. I mean, I think that's pretty common for most folks.

So, when it's this size, it's ready for picking?

-Yeah. Ready for harvest. -It's prime time.

-Yep. -Sure.

-Wow. Can I touch it? -Yes.

We can even pick it and take it off the tree

and see what's inside.

Oh, my goodn-- Oh, my goodness me! Wow!

And there it is. Have a smell.

It's a delicious tropical fruit.

-That's amazing! -Mm-hmm.

-Yeah. -It's like an animal coming out.

Yeah, for folks who aren't used to it,

it can be a little bit kind of a shocking fruit to see.

It's a very typical tropical fruit.

It's custardy. It's a little viscous and slimy.

But if you'd like to, grab a couple of those seeds,

just pop them in your mouth, and suck on them.

-What, from this? -Yeah.

Do you want me to hand them to you?

So, just take two or three of these.

Don't chew into the seeds. It's a little bitter.

Just suck on them.

Wow!

That's extraordinary!

Just straight out of the pod, in my mouth.

It tastes citrusy, like almost lemon.

Yeah, it is a tropical fruit.

I've never tasted anything like it.

It's one of my favourites.

Yeah, we're snacking up here all day.

So, how does this become chocolate?

What we're after is what's inside there.

So all that purple mass -- that's the future chocolate.

How amazing.

The fruit's super-important, though,

because it's the fuel for the fermentation

that's going to condition this seed

and allow it to taste like chocolate.

Goodness me.

Well, Lawrence is going to bring us an even better treat

-that comes from our harvest. -What's this?

Well, I just happen to have here a bar

of Lonohana Estate chocolate.

-Oh, my goodness! -This is our...

To be able to taste that chocolate in the farm

we thought would be pretty cool.

If you let it melt, you'll get the most story from the flavour.

That is beautiful.

It's fantastic!

I mean, to eat this here after I've seen the pod open,

the fruit, and now this,

I'm not kidding, this is really something very special.

-Thank you all. -Yeah.

What a treat.

I'm so impressed these farmers manage

to create delicious chocolate

while simultaneously restoring part of the rainforest.

When Agatha was here, it was just barren and bare,

and the sugarcane plantations just depleted

the whole landscape.

And then to come here in this almost like a grove,

full of greens, full of wonderful, positive energy.

I really feel it in here. I feel...

I mean, it may sound stupid,

but I really feel all the trees here are so happy to be here.

And they're giving to us and they're giving to them.

I just find it extraordinary.

♪♪

♪♪

Before I got here, my understanding of Hawaii

was based largely on all those clichés associated

with the island,

many of which were born in the 1920's, when Agatha was here.

But I've found the real Hawaii to be far more interesting,

and I'm sure that Agatha was equally fascinated.

And that's why I'm keen to find out

how Agatha's travels influenced her writing,

and so I'm meeting Professor Michelle Kazmer,

an expert on crime literature.

I think that by reading her books,

especially in the '20s and '30s,

the content and the travel seems to me

very dominant compared to other literature at the time, really.

Yes, Agatha -- she loved to travel,

and it's reflected in her work.

You see every mode of travel.

I mean, people are travelling in "The Secret Adversary,"

and they're travelling all the way through.

"Nemesis" is a travel-oriented book.

"Passenger to Frankfurt" is a travel-oriented book.

So she never leaves that love for travel aside.

And the other thing I've noticed,

especially in her portrayal of young women,

especially in the early books,

she writes women with passionate feelings.

Yes.

So when we talk about a reserved, shy,

reclusive Agatha Christie,

this is not the Agatha Christie I've met on the Empire Tour.

Oh, absolutely not. She's surfing in Hawaii.

She loves to get into the ocean.

She likes to play golf. She likes to go on long walks.

She's just a very physically vigorous person.

Well, my goodness, haven't I experienced in her footsteps?

-My goodness me. -Right.

Do you think a lot of her travels

have influenced her writing?

Oh, absolutely. And, in fact, islands, right, like this one.

Islands show up in her books all the time

because islands are a wonderful literary device.

I mean, they're beautiful places to be, but they're also a way

to accumulate people of different social strata,

different personality types who wouldn't necessarily

normally all be together in one place,

and you get them isolated from their normal lives

so they also might behave in ways

that they don't typically behave.

So anytime we can travel

and get people isolated in a setting

is a perfect setting for a crime novel.

Yes.

And the fact that she did all of this travel

herself means that she can also talk about the logistics

and the practicalities of travel in a very realistic way

and sometimes even the inconveniences of travel.

So whether it's standing in line at Cooks

to buy a ticket or waiting for a porter to get your luggage

and just sort of standing there, you know, haplessly.

But what's interesting with Poirot is, yes, he does travel,

but he doesn't like it.

No, he doesn't like it at all. Absolutely.

But she has great fun with him because he doesn't like it.

I think she's a great people observer in her normal life.

Oh, yes.

I mean, I knew Harold Pinter very well and I knew

that he would listen to people on buses and things like that.

But I think, if she was here on this beach,

she would be watching people.

She'd be observing people and absorbing this into herself

and working out,

"Well, maybe I can use that person in a story".

-Would you agree with that? -Absolutely.

And she never wanted it to be anybody she knew well.

She avoided people she knew well.

But I have a feeling, if she were here at this moment,

she would be noticing what they were wearing,

how they were walking, and sort of extrapolating reasons

why they were acting the way they were

and building backstories as she went,

and then, of course, frantically writing it down in the notebooks

that she kept with her, absolutely.

I know that Agatha Christie is your chosen

and specific calling or subject.

For sure.

Do you think that she genuinely deserves the title

"The Queen of Crime"?

Absolutely. For anything that you can think about

crime fiction, Agatha either did it first,

if she didn't do it first, she did it best,

and, often, she did it both.

So when you say, "Oh, this has been overdone,

it's been done too many times, it's trite,"

no, but she's the one who invented it.

And if she didn't, she's the one

who did the canonically best form of it.

And I absolutely stand by that.

She was absolutely brilliant, start to finish.

♪♪

Suchet: I'm coming to the end of my adventures in Hawaii.

I've had an unforgettable experience,

just as Agatha did a century ago.

I think Agatha's time here with Archie was very special --

for them both.

For Archie, a chance to get away from all his duties

in the Empire Mission, and for Agatha,

a chance to spend quality time with the husband

whom she loved so much.

And a holiday here must have been something

that most Brits in the 1920s could have only dreamed of.

And Agatha threw herself into so many activities,

her favourite, of course, being surfing.

But all good things must come to an end,

and so it was with their holiday.

And they had to prepare for the itinerary of the Empire Mission

and their next stop and mine -- Canada.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

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