Wahiawa, Hawaii -- For many years, the Dole Plantation of Hawaii has been selling fruit, whether it is from a fruit stand or large plantation.In the case of the Dole Plantation, that’s how it had its early beginning — operating as a fruit stand beginning in the early 1950s. As its popularity grew, so too, did the size of its facility. In 1989, after extensive remodeling, the Dole Plantation was opened to the public as Hawaii’s “Pineapple Experience.”Today, Dole sells more than 3,500 fresh, Hawaiian-grown pineapples for consumption at stores or from its plantation, where it is packaged for customers to take home. Along with the growth of the facility came a gift shop, which offers hundreds of pineapple-related and Dole brand items, including the world famous Dole Whip, a chilled non-dairy treat that commands lines of people at Disneyland.“We are constantly having some kind of construction going on around the plantation,” said Marvin Kaolani, Dole Plantation tour guide. “New things are always being added to make the plantation a better experience for all visitors.”Kaolani said that the plantation gets more than one million visitors each year, each coming to see Dole’s pineapples and its attractions.“We get visitors from all over the world,” said 26-year-old Kaolani. “We get mainly tourists here. Without them we would definitely go out of business.”Some of the attractions and activities that Dole’s visitors experience are the Pineapple Express, a two-mile, 20-minute fully narrated train tour of the plantation grounds. The tour provides tourists with a chance to learn about the history behind Hawaii’s pineapple and agriculture business. While on the train, visitors are told the story of James Dole, founder of Dole Fruits, and witness the beautiful vista of Oahu’s North Shore.For those who enjoy tours, Dole offers another — the Plantation Garden Tour. This self-guided tour gives visitors an up-close view of some of the crops that are grown on the North Shore of Oahu. Aside from the flora, visitors receive an education on plantation villages that housed contract workers who came from all over the world to work in Hawaii’s plantation fields.Of all of its many activities, perhaps the most famous is the Dole Plantation’s Pineapple Garden Maze. The “Guinness Book of World Records” officially recognized the maze in 2001 as the world’s largest maze. Covering an area of more than two acres, with a path 1.7 miles long, the maze is home to more than 11,400 Hawaiian plants, including a large variety of hibiscus — Hawaii’s official state flower.“My kids loved the maze,” said Linda J. Franklin a Jacksonville, Fla. native. “I think we were probably the slowest people to ever go through the maze. We got caught at almost every turn.”Franklin said this is her first time in Hawaii, and she and her family wanted to see some of the attractions. She said she chose the Dole Plantation as one of the attractions to visit because it was one her family had heard a lot about.“This has been one of the better things we’ve done since we’ve been in Hawaii,” admitted Franklin. “Coming to Hawaii is a once-in-a-lifetime thing for the average person, so I’m trying to make it as memorable as possible for my kids, because they may never have this opportunity again.”Dole Plantation is located at 64-1550 Kamehameha Highway in Wahiawa, on the North Shore. For more information about the Dole Plantation, call 621-8408 or visit www.doleplantation.com.