Well, last Sunday Christopher and I decided to make that north-ward journey again, this time in a 4 wheel drive vehicle. If the truck loaned to us was able to take the off-roading to the green sand beach, over those lava rock moguls, it would certainly be able to take the rutted, muddy roads that stopped us from visiting this heiau.
A heiau is a Hawaiian temple, they're constructed of lava rock in many shapes and styles depending upon their specific purpose. Walls tend to be tall and very thick, within those walls are terraces of earth or stone.....and of course, they have no roof...hard to build a roof out of lava rock...
They reminded me (somewhat) of the cairns you see in the British isles...only much larger.
Locations of the heiau vary from mountain top to sea side with some even being built under the water as fishing shrines. They were constructed to treat the sick, make offerings to the gods, stop/start the rain, some for peace and some for war.
It's the war heiau, aka luakini heiau, that we journeyed to see today, and we happened to visit two of them.
Pu'ukohola Heiau was on the way to our intended destination so we took the time (what else do we have here?) for a visit. It's part of the National Park's Service, has a very informative and well done visitor's center and is only an hour north of Kona. It sits on the brow of "whale hill" overlooking Kawaihae Harbor and was built about 200 years ago by King Kamehameha (pronounced Ka may ha may ha). Kamehameha was the king who united the Hawaiian islands in 1810 and much is attributed to him. I could write an entire blog post about his influence but I'll let you read about him yourself here. (be sure to checkout his full, official name....insane!)
When compared to some other architectural wonders, these heiau aren't all that much to look at but, when you realize-especially in this location-that there really isn't any lava rock around, and you hear the legend about a human chain of "volunteers" that hand passed the stones from the Pololu Valley, some 15 miles over a mountain (as the crow flies), and you're standing next to the 200'+ long structure...it's rather quite impressive.
And when you hear that Kamehameha, in his quest to unite (conquer?) the islands, sent his wife's grandmother to a priest on another island (now remember, this was the late 1700's -no planes-and the seas are rough!) to ask what would appease the gods and she came back with a message from the priest instructing him to build a huge luakini heiau at this precise spot...AND...the "volunteers" were routinely sacrificed during the construction-so the gods would be pleased...AND...once the heiau was complete, Kamehameha dedicated the place by inviting and then sacrificing his enemy Keoua on this very spot..AND..only a few years later he was able to unite all of the islands....it all makes for a much more interesting place.
Plus, the views of Kawaihae Harbor, with it's occasional cruising of Black Tipped Reef Sharks makes the stop worth while.
As we headed north along the coastal highway (is there anything else here?), where there is nothing but the open ocean to the left and somewhat arid grasslands rising up the hills to the right (behind a few strands of barbed wire fence-pasture?) we took a short, off road excursion so we could capture this incredible photo....
See that dark "mound" on the horizon? That's Maui..30 miles across the open ocean. We had a view of it all day.
And.....after taking this photo, if I pivoted 180 degrees to look in the opposite direction, I saw Mauna Loa.....with snow. Other then the vog (air pollution from volcanic smog) this was about as clear as the skies get here. Not bad.
We finally arrived at the turn off from the highway, the turnoff that would take us to Mo'okini Heiau which we weren't able to visit a few days prior.
Like the southern tip of the island (near the green sand beach) the northern tip is like a prairie with waist high wavy grass as far as the eye can see. Only this time, other then an airport that's ocean side, and the stand of windmills for the wind "farm", the entire area is a dairy farm. Who knew they grew cows in the Hawaiias!
Notice the silos in the first photo (with Maui looming across the ocean in the background). Also notice the way the trees are bent, these trees are permanently leaning due to the awesome wind that constantly blows here.
Just having been in Scotland, this area reminds me very much of the Scottish coast..although sunnier..and warmer....and without the accent.....
After passing the farm, the road leads straight to the little airport, where you're directly facing the ocean. At this point, after a sharp left, the road turns to dirt (amazing there's any dirt out here with the wind!) and it takes you past the end of the runway and eventually to the actual coastline.This second photo was taken from the end of the runway, facing the ocean and Maui (this is the northern most point of the big island). Yes, those are white caps and no, the palm trees do not lean, the wind was blowing that hard. (This is the place we had to stop with the Honda.)
Someone actually lives way out here! I imagine it's part of the farm, god only knows what they do for modern conveniences.
With a right turn in front of this house, we continued on with the 4 wheel drive truck, only to go 100ft and be faced with a mud puddle that took up the entire width of the rutted road and was bigger then the truck. Christopher refused to drive through it. You see, a number of years ago, he and Makoto took papasan's 4 wheel drive Trooper on an excursion to Waipi'o Valley where Christopher tried driving through a similar puddle only to get the front end of the Trooper buried in the puddle...to the point where the gas peddle was under water...I'm guessing his fear of puddles is genuine.
So, after traveling only 100ft more then we did in the Honda, we parked the truck and hoofed it; the walk from the truck was another five minutes to the heiau. With the wind at our backs the walls of the heiau were mostly concealed by a stand of shrubbery with the leeward side being a manicured lawn and the entire site ringed in a low, lava rock wall.
The Mo'okini Heiau dates back to the 12th century and was built by a Samoan priest named Pa'ao as a temple to a family of gods known as Ku. Pa'ao came to the island and started the custom of human sacrifice (among other things). Did I mention that a laniki heiau is not only a war heiau but also the one associated with human/animal sacrifice? On the grounds of this windswept piece of earth, thousands of people were sacrificed to the blood thirsty god Ku-of-the-maggot-dripping-mouth (no kidding) not to be confused with Ku-of-the-deep-forest or Ku-the-snatcher-of-land...many of them laid upon the holehole stone (third photo here) where their flesh was stripped from their bones. Ew.
We read that the place has an unearthly, soulless feeling about it due to the violence that happened there so many centuries ago. Sometimes I can feel those kinds of things but honestly, this time I only noticed the beauty of the place...the blue skies, the rough ocean, the blowing grasses.....it was also kind of hard to wrap yourself up in the spirit of a place when you're downwind from a dairy farm. The rich, sweet smell of silage and dairy cattle permeates the air..not a bad thing, just unexpected in such a remote part of the planet.
After hopping a fence and walking a bit further west-on the wrong side of the barbed wire cattle fence!-, we came upon the birth site of King Kamehameha. There wasn't all that much to see there other then another low, lava rock wall surrounding the site and what looks like the primitive foundations of a building, but at least we can say we were there. (to the left of Christopher in this photo)
and...after a very adventurous morning, we made our way back through the little town of Hawi for sushi! and we took Kohala Mountain Road to Waimea and back home to Kona.
One thing I will say about the Kohala Mountain Rd...it's freakin' gorgeous! If the ocean was not in the distance, and I had been dropped into the area, I would have sworn I was in Switzerland...rolling, grassy hills with cattle grazing and cool breezes and the road lined with stories-tall pines; easily the most magnificent stretch of road I've ever been on in my life.
From this road, we were also able to look back toward Kona. See the little bay at the bottom/center of the photo? That's Kawaihae Harbor, the site of the first heiau we visited in the morning.....
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