October 30

Today’s first stop was at Hawai’i Volcanoes NP. As any visitor, I was hoping to see lava bursting forth from the ground. Sadly, it was not to be. There had been an eruption the week of September 10, but that was seven weeks in the past. One never knows when Pele will decide to “rock-n-roll”. I had to be content with watching steam venture forth from the fissures in Kilauea. The drive from Hilo was uneventful. This is only a 45-minute path, versus 2 hours if one stays in the Kona area on the west side of the island. I chucked when I saw signs saying to keep an eye for cracks on the road surface of route 11 (which runs from Hilo to Kona, along the southside of the island).

** have to take a break to see a doctor… will be back later today…

When entering the park, stop at the VC and see “Born of Fire, Born of the Sea,” a 25-minute film which provides spectacular video of the park. Next action was to take Crater Rim road to the west for steam vents and the Jagger Museum. Turns out the museum has been closed for a few years due to the 2018 eruption which badly damaged the structure. But one can walk around either side of the building to get a view of the Kilauea Caldera and its Halema’uma’u Crater. The Rim road is closed at this point because previous eruptions have wiped out sections of the road, so I turned around and drove to the Thurston Lave Tube (also known as Nahuku). The amount of parking is limited. The pavement has white lettering which reads “30 minutes”, sufficient time for the tour. A paved trail leads down through the rain forest to an opening. Around 400 years ago there was hot lava flowing through this “tunnel”. During daylight hours the NPS has lights turned on in the tube. You exit the backside and loop back through more rain forest to the parking lot.

The other maintained asphalt road in the park, the Chain-of-Craters Road, continues on at this point, traversing the Mauna Loa lava flows from the 1970’s. The 19-mile road descends 3,700 feet before reaching the coast. In the past, the end of the road was the trailhead to reach the point where Kilauea has been slowly flowing lava into the sea; an 8-mile roundtrip hike. Lava was flowing when I visited the park in 2016. But signage states the flowing has stopped, so there are no pyrotechnics to see. But if you made it to this parking lot you might as well take the 400-yard walk over to the Holei Sea Arch, a 60-foot tall arch which has been created over the centuries by the force of waves crashing against the lava rock.

I did not stop at the Pu'u Loa Petroglyph Field which has over 23,000 petroglyphs. The NPS figured this quantity would generate immense interest from visitors, so a boardwalk was built to allow easy access. Images of dots, rings, circles, and human figures are some of the carvings to be examined.

The hike to the top of Mauna Loa was also not on my agenda today. It is the hardest trek in the park, going ten miles with an elevation gain of 7000 feet, and that is if your vehicle can traverse the 11.5-mile one-lane road to the trailhead at 6600-foot elevation. Yes, even in the South Pacific, if you can get to 13,600 feet elevation you can have snow. There are plenty of photos on the internet, because I have no intention of personally viewing a snowstorm on this volcano’s summit.

The entire Hawaiian ecosystem is special. 90% of the flora and fauna are found no place else on our earth. It is truly an Eden for its inhabitants. The Hawaiian Islands’ volcanos had 70 million years to create a unique biosphere. I tried to imagine what the islands looked like before Captain Cook brought western civilization to their sandy shores. There are many animal species which can be found no other place. One is the famous Nene, or Hawaiian Goose. It is the state’s official bird, seen on five of the State’s islands, with 2000 living in the wild; the rarest goose species on the planet. The Nene’s closest ancestor is the Canadian Goose. In 1952, the headcount was only 30. Since then, federal and state agencies have acted to protect nesting sites and to deter predators, such as feral cats. Driving along Hawai’i’s roads and in this park, I saw many yellow diamond-shaped signs with the image of a mother Nene and her gooseling. The words “Nene Crossing” are below the image. Nene spend most of their time on the ground. I did not see any today, thankful I saw those two back on Maui. The hope is people will take note and pay attention in these areas to minimize bird deaths.

What a beautiful park. Now it was time to retrace my path to Hilo, then onto the last Hawaiian park for my Quest.

The Saddle Road, route 200, returned me to the west side of the island. This is the main connector between the east and west. The road was littered with dead goats and sheep. Signs every two miles stated to be on alert since wildlife liked to cross the roadway. I could see plenty of these animals near the berms, grazing on grass and bushes. Too bad some cannot be content to stay on one side or the other. Thankfully, none were injured by the Chevy Malibu I was driving. After driving by some awesome golf resorts, Pu’ukohola Heiau NHS came into view. This park preserves a royal compound, most famous for Kamehameha I in the second half of the 18th century, but used for many years by previous chiefs. There is no accurate record of Kamehameha’s birth. Opinion is it happened around 1758, coinciding with the appearance of a white-tailed star. Prophets on the islands said this was a sign a great leader would be born. The help of a blue-blood line, born to a High Chief and a princess, made Kamehameha a great warrior and by 1782 he controlled the northern part of Hawai’i. This gave him ownership of the family’s war god, Kuka’ilimoku. This god was to be a major factor in the next decade, helping to settle once and for all who the supreme king would be for the Hawaii islands. By 1790 Kamehameha had wrested control of Maui, Lana’I, and Moloka’I from their chieftains. Only one guy left to conquer. His name was Keoua Kuahu’ula, a chief also born of royal blue blood. The blood DNA was about as close to Kamehameha’s as one could get; cousins. Go figure. Keoua controlled the southern half of Hawai’I, doing quite well. How was Kamehameha to get this last obstacle out of the way so he could be king of all the islands? Kamehameha decided to ask one of the revered Hawai’I prophets for an answer. Kapoukahi foretold a final consolidation of all the islands’ peoples if Kamehameha would build a temple to the family’s war god, placing it on top of Pu’ukohola. The temple would be called Pu’ukohola Heiau, “Temple on the Whale Hill”. The king only had to construct a single structure, and in return he would rule all the Hawaii islands, too tempting a prophecy to ignore. Thousands of laborers were ‘volunteered’ to build the temple, the structure visitors today see, still standing as it did 200+ years ago. Now, Kapoukahi didn’t stop once he gave the all important big news. He proceeded to lay out some ground rules which had to be followed during construction. Without rules, chaos ventures forth. One required construction material be a specific lava rock, found only at the valley of Pololu. Oh yeah, a mere 15 miles away. Calculating. How many people does it take to form a 15-mile chain? Well, if you are a king you don’t need to do the math, you just order your subjects to form a line. The islanders knew nothing about mortar. Each of the stones is laid upon one another without any material holding them together. Is not gravity helpful? One other requirement. With the stones being used for a sacred purpose they could not touch the ground once lifted. A stone was removed from the line if dropped. I wonder if the laborer who dropped it was also ‘removed’. The temple had the look of a whale, covering an area of 224 by 100 feet with walls up to 20 feet high. The task finished, Kamehameha sent word to cousin Keoua to visit. By this time most everyone, including Keoua, accepted Kamehameha was to be the one ruler of the islands. Keoua’s entourage approached the Pelekane, Royal Courtyard, beach area in hull canoes to pledge allegiance. The chief thought he would pull a fast one on Kamehameha. When a chief or warrior surrenders, they in a sense are giving away 100% percent of their manhood to the victor. Not 10%, or 50%, but 100% of themselves. Legend says as the canoes came closer Keoua stood up, removed his feather cap and ornamental robe, and proceeded to cut off a part of his body. This in effect would keep Kamehameha from taking Keoua’s entire body and spirit.

The people waiting on the beach were not amused. A warrior threw a spear at the chief’s canoe. The chief must have been a great warrior in his own right because legend says he caught the spear and threw it back at the beach, killing the warrior who had thrown it. Throwing an implement of war towards the vicinity of the great Kamehameha was not the most diplomatic course of action. The chief’s party was slaughtered. Keoua did not have to worry about living in disgrace because he was now dead. Kamehameha had Keoua’s body taken to the temple and offered as a sacrifice to Kuka’ilimoki, thereby ending the last major resistance to the Great One’s rule. Keoua’s bones to this day lay within the structure.

Kamehameha officially united the islands in 1810. That was a mere formality after vanquishing Keoua. Two stranded European sailors, John Young (British) and Isaac Davis (Welsh), who became royal advisors, helped the king stamp out the last pockets of resistance. Within the park boundaries is John Young’s home site, 400 yards north of the Whale Temple, though one can drive to it since the home is on the other side of route 270. What a sight of contrast when built, being a Western-style building. The island’s residents must have wondered who Young’s gods were to give him the divine inspiration for such a structure. Looking across the island one can see which architectural style won out over the last two centuries. Another point of interest in the park is Mailekini Heiau, a few yards past the main viewing point for Pu’ukohola Heiau. This is an earlier constructed temple. The NPS does not know its original purpose. Kamehameha, though, put it to use as a fort during his reign. Not having endless life, like elves, dwarfs, and wizards in Middle Earth (you never read The Lord of the Rings by Tolkien?), the man King Kamehameha ventured down the path of Death to meet his gods in 1819. The Great One’s son, Liholiho, became King Kamehameha II. Liholiho went to the Pelekane to perform the customary preparation for his ascension. The courtyard is a short distance from Mailekini Heiau, and the path Liholiho took is the same path visitors walk today. Liholiho is known for scrapping the kapu system, the ancient Hawaiian code of conduct based on religion and cultural heritage. This meant the purpose of Pu’ukohola Heiau was no longer relevant. The site was abandoned. Today there is a sign at the Pelekane beach saying sharks come over the reef into the shallows, so a warning not to swim in the bay. I do not know about other people, but I would not need a second warning. Turns out not more than 100 yards offshore from the beach are the sunken ruins of another temple; Hale o Kapuni Heiau. The purpose of this temple was to deify sharks. Tradition says for as long as sharks keep coming to the temple the Hawaiian peoples know their gods are pleased, and the spirit of Kamehameha I is still present, watching over their world.