The spirit orbs float out to meet us as we approach the Pali Lookout, huddling close in the dark behind our guide from Oahu Ghost Tours of Honolulu.  "Whatever you do," Joe Punohu advises, holding the group's only flashlight, "don't run. We'll never find you."

Hawaii--the world's most remote inhabited islands--are well-known for their supernatural phenomena.  Most locals accept paranormal activity as a commonplace occurrence and have rituals and protocol to deal with it.  For tourists, the authentic eco-cultural tours run by Oahu Ghost Tours are a rare opportunity to learn about this aspect of Hawaiian culture.

Here on the windwhipped Pali Lookout, we're definitely not in Waikiki anymore.  1200 feet below us lie the skulls of more than 500 warriors driven to their death in 1795 by Kamehameha the Great's invading forces.  According to legend, it is their spirits manifesting in the ghostly orbs appearing on the displays of our digital cameras.

Comparing images, peering over the Lookout's edge into the inky black below, it's all spinetingling good fun until we hear the unmistakable smattering of bare feet--many bare feet--running alongside the cliff wall behind us.  "Time to go," says Joe.

Back on the bus, he explains that there is a time on the tour that we are not just permitted to run but actually encouraged: if we hear or spot the dreaded Night Marchers.  These ghostly warriors, legless below the knees, continue to roam--chanting, torches flickering--over Oahu's ancient snaking trails.  Modern Honolulu has been built right over many of these ancient paths and the Night Marchers have been spotted as centrally as Chinatown.

At the tour's next stop, the Ulupo heiau, an ancient temple still in use, we wait while Joe enters the sanctuary to leave offerings for spirits offended by the inadvertent bad behaviour of last week's tour group.  "Look around, take a few pictures, but whatever you do, don't disrespect the rocks."

Each tour is different, explains co-guide Robert Sepulveda.  While the sites visited remain the same, the varying composition of group members' personalities greatly affects what is experienced on any given tour.  Joe returns to the group, a protective blue-ish spirit orb snapped hovering close behind him.

On our way to the next stop, the guides relate their own supernatural experiences as well as tales from Hawaiian lore like the malevolent Lizard Woman who lures men with her beauty and women with the sound of a child crying.

At the modern murder site of Morgan's Corner, a few "tired" tour members opt to remain on the bus while the rest of us hunch against the dark and wind and head into the looming forest behind our guides.  An otherworldly flicker glimpsed through the trees and the unmistakable sound of a blown conch heard by several of the group's more sensitive members, however, and it's another rush for the bus.  Conch shells are still used by Hawaiians as a rallying call to, say, a luau or musical performance.  Here on a densely treed, uninhabited hillside, however, it's assumed to be a phantom conch rallying the Night Marchers.

The eerie Chinese Cemetery at Manoa is the tour's final stop.  Child mortality was high in the not-so-good old days and Joe and Robert explain that area residents have had to plant a lot of red ti plants around the graveyard and their homes to keep ghostly mischiefmakers at bay.

One by one, tour members wishing to contact departed family members take turns stepping into a massive banyan tree whose hollow center is thought to be a portal to the afterlife.  When the wind rises suddenly from dead calm to a gravel-pelting freight train, it's again time to hustle back to the bus.

What was that about disrespecting the rocks, someone asks.  The black lava rocks of Hawaii have spirits, powerful spirits who don't appreciate being jumped on, inadvertently peed on or removed from their island home as souvenirs.  Hundreds of rocks taken by tourists are mailed back by express post every year, says Joe Punohu, and of all things seen and heard this night it's the easiest to accept.  Local spirit or living tourist, it seems no one wants to leave Oahu's earthly paradise.

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Oahu Ghost Tours operates three types of authentic eco-cultural tours.  Book well ahead!  The crazy-popular Orbs of Oahu night driving tour takes about four hours and is not recommended for children.  Check their website for special Halloween dates.

Air Canada flies to Honolulu daily from Toronto.  Flight time is about 11 hours, with a change in Vancouver.