Masquerade

Jesus the Fisherman

A Hand in It

Coliseum

Kaniakapupu revisited

Actually when I began my adventure I had not meant to go to Kaniakapupu again, but rather to go to another site across Nu’uanu Valley. I followed the map I had been given and found the approximate location of the pre-Hawaiian stone site that I had been told about. Unfortunately,the underbrush was so thick at the roadside (and I had been warned of the presence of feral pigs) that I was loathe to go into the brush and bushwhack alone. Instead I drove a little farther up the valley and across to the other side to see if I could find the trail opening for Kaniakapupu again. With a little scouring, I found the opening in the bamboo and asked the spirits if I could please enter. There is a definite trail, and it wasn’t long until I came upon the pipe lying across the trail and I knew I was in the right spot. I followed the second trail and went directly to the site. There were leis on the marker, along with fruit and some shells left as offerings. I smiled when I saw the shells—Kaniakapupu means “singing shell”.

I wandered around, not so much paying attention to the crumbling structure, for I had already explored it the last time I was there. This time I wandered out into the forest as far as different trails took me—looking for the perimeter of the site. My understanding was that it was built on or near an old heiau site. Instead, what caught my attention this time was rocks.

This rock was definitely put upright by human hands. It was nestled in the fork of a very large tree—and had been there for quite some time. It was off to the side and behind the stone house site. From my readings, I realized that I was looking at a definite “male” image.

This rock may have had a crescent carved on it—or perhaps it was a natural hole in the rock. I couldn’t tell for sure. The crescent shape was one found on the Ali’i’s feathered capes, one of the goddess Hina, the moon. The dark hole beside it was quite deep in the rock, again I couldn’t tell if it was a natural hole in the rock or if it had been gouged out. Interesting….

This rock stared at me as I passed by, and called to me to come back and take its picture. When I looked at it though the camera lens, it seemed to me I saw two eyes looking back at me. The rocks were alive, speaking to me softly, as rocks do.

As I left the site and walked back down to the main path, I came upon a large group of people cutting bamboo. Since this is watershed land, I wanted to question their right to harvest bamboo, which they were obviously doing. But a solitary hiker does not question a group of people, many of whom had very sharp machetes, so I walked quickly through the logging operation, careful to not have bamboo fall upon my head, and got the hell away from them. To ease my mind, I said to myself, ‘It’s bamboo. It’ll grow back.”

Kalai pahoa

This is one of the Hawaiian poison gods. The story is that a sliver of wood from any of the poison gods, dropped in your food, would bring death. What surprised me about this particular image was the mo'o (lizards) tattooed on his face. Praying someone to death, and helping the process out with sprinkling the food with poison was one way to get rid of your enemy. The poison came from a special grove of trees on the island of Molokai. One of the sacred queens, Kalaniakauiokikilo, who had been taken captive by Kamehameha after the battle of Iao and ridiculed for years, finally took poison rather than live under his reign anymore.

Ka'a'awa Valley and Kualoa Ranch

They did a have a couple of huts built to show how things might have looked in the old days. There is also a “legend” tour, which I may have to go back and take to find out what I really want to know… or at least to say I’ve heard the tour. They had some native plants around the huts: pandanas to make mats (as in this photo), noni for medicine, etc.

The wrangler at Kualoa Ranch put me on Blu, the lead horse—the one who had just come back from a trail ride. I’m sure he was not any too thrilled about having to turn around and go right out again, however he didn’t protest too much. Rather, he stood still as I mounted him (on the “wrong” side—it’s the way they pulled the horses up to the mounting steps) and plodded along very amicably. He had one speed, which was fine because I could relax and look around. The trail master (on the white horse) had to cut a switch for Craig’s horse, who had decided that he’d rather stay home and watch ‘the game’ than go for a trail ride.

It is said that this valley is the final resting place of over 150 generations of ali’i. Kahekili, the ruler of Maui, asked for no other spot when he came to conquer O’ahu than this because he wanted rights to the whale bones that washed ashore here. Kahahana, the ruling chief of O’ahu, was warned by the priest Ka’opulupulu not to give this spot away or else he would be giving all his authority away. As it turned out, Kahekili convinced the king to kill the priest. Then Kahikili attacked and conquered O’ahu without the bothersome priest in the way.

It is the Valley of the Kings as far as the island of O’ahu goes… many bones of the chiefs are stashed in the caves in this valley. This area was once a pu’uhonua (a place of refuge). It was a residence of chiefs and where they trained the young ali’i. It was also the spot of the beginning and end of the Makahiki procession, in which the king and his retinue circled the island visiting all the villages and collecting taxes. The beach area was also a sacred canoe landing spot and even Kamehameha lowered his sails as he passed.

Kamehameha III sold some of the land to the Judd’s in 1850. Queen Kalama moved to Kualoa after her husband died and tried to operate a sugar mill. Besides the fact that this land is not rich enough for sugar, there was an accident and the workers were convinced that such an enterprise should not be run on sacred land. Eventually the Judd’s bought up over 4,000 acres—pennies on the dollar—and opened Kualoa Ranch. The trail master wanted to talk about movie sets. I was more interested in the spirits and asked about caves and bones. She glossed over that… and I figured they were right in protecting the bones, and that most people would rather be “Lost” than know the history. And so it goes….