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New Visitor Center opens at Kualoa

Kualoa Ranch will celebrate the opening of its new Visitor Center during Labor Day weekend, Sept. 4 through 6.

Tours and activities for local residents and military will be offered for at least 25 percent off regular kamaaina rates.

Six-wheel drive vehicles will take people into the remote areas of the ranch. Or take in the vistas on horseback or ATV.

Children will be able to enjoy narrated tours that journey into Kaaawa Valley, the setting for numerous films such as "Jurassic Park."

For more information, call 237-8515.

Garden tour in Kona

The Amy Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden, a Bishop Museum facility in Kona, will offer a free hour-and-a-half tour of its collection of native plants at 10 a.m. Sept. 11.

The tour is an initiative under the Office of Innovation and Improvement of the United States Department of Education.

The garden displays and interprets plants of significance in Hawaiian culture. Among the forest's koa and sandalwood trees, visitors will also see ho'awa, seeds that are the favored food of the alala, or Hawaiian crow.

The garden is in South Kona on the Mamalahoa Highway. There is a suggested donation of $4. For more information, call 808-323-3318.

Got goat's milk soap?

Next time you need to bring back omiyage from Maui, why not bring back goat's milk soap?

The creamy, moisturizing soap is a side product of Surfing Goat Dairy in Kula.

The fruit- and herb-scented bars come in fragrances such as eucalyptus, lime, mango, patchouli, pineapple, English rose, almond, lavender, banana, coconut, and more.

They are made the old-fashioned way, cold-processed with nothing but natural ingredients -- 25-percent pure goat's milk, soybean and coconut oils, and essential or fragrance oils -- and cured for more than two weeks.

They are sold in 4-ounce bars for $5. The dairy is at 3651 Omaopio Road. Call 808-878-2870 for more information.