Waiawa

Last, last Saturday I decided to take a ride out to a place in Waiawa I've been reading about for the last three weeks. I studied maps easily found online and plotted my course on Google maps. Using the Terrain option to figure out exactly what approach to take.

Aside from the large military presence in the mauka and makai areas. To the regular passersby Waiawa pretty much seems untouched by modern development. Although, sugar plantations were the first to totally envelop this district. Now it seems like a solar farm will be the next occupier of this ahupuaa for this generation of Oahu. 

Waiawa is named after the bitter drink of Awa that was used by the higher ranked in the old times and later commoners drank it as well. It was said the water ways themselves are similar to that of an awa root the way they twist and turn through the lowland areas before finally reaching Pearl Harbor. Now those waterways are restricted and channel into one stream instead of a wide delta at the mouth of it. It is choked and narrow for the most part. Awa has other meanings like that of the milkfish, and awa can also mean a harbor cove or passage...

The freeway intersects a couple of the gulches of Waiawa and border Waipio.  I had to figure out a way to get where with the least amount of trail searching and I couldn't just park a car where I wanted to enter the overgrowth.

I took a pretty dangerous bike route that I wouldn't like to have anyone else attempt on my account...

I found a ditch that led water from the freeway into the gulch below. So I stepped lightly through the California grass and expected it to suddenly drop off at some point like most do.

Finally I got into Panakauahi Gulch. I was both relieved and saddened to find fresh tracks from dirt bikes down there. Relieved because I wasn't the last person here in awhile because that's just creepy. Saddened because the motorbikes are doing damage to the ancient trail.

       

This path along the ridge of Waiawa was used for unnumbered generations through precontact and up until modern times. People travelling from the Kona to Ewa district up to the Lihue area and even further toward Waialua took this route. Trails pointed out by John Papa I'i shows this route leading to Oahunui via multiple Waiawa gulches and finally to the Kipapa and Waikakalaua gluches. The H2 freeway was built to follow this route. Although an older route about a mile eastward would have also been traveled as well...

Imagine yourself taking this trail long ago. You've had something to do with the water of Puuloa and now you are heading inland along this well beaten path. The trek takes a lot of effort and you need to rest, maybe for the night. Rain brings a flash flood down the normally placid stream. Where do you go for a break?

This outcropping is one of the only spots in the gulch that has a sheer cliff. The rest of the gulch has a gradual slope. It's not hard to picture it being a nice rest spot that is protected from above and just high enough to avoid any rise of water and debris.

If you have the time to hang out for a bit. Why not get down on some ancient graffiti? The Waiawa petroglyphs are said to have had about 75 images carved into the rock face. 

At the time I didn't even notice any but after walking up and down the possible locations for it I was convinced they were in the surface. Finally the legs and body of a figure stood out. Honestly, this was the only image I was convinced I saw. Up until I looked at the images here now that you see for yourself.

There are legends and song of this district. 

One legend is of a chiefess from Hawaii island taking this path. She stopped to hide her Nihi Palaoa, whale tooth pendant in order to keep her status secret. A stone akua of this valley named Ke'kua Olelo, talking god witnessed where she hid it. In a rock at a heiau across the gulch, later to be named after the talking god. He promised her that he would show her descendants where it was hidden.

Another legend involing the same Ke'akua Olelo is when it witnesses two starving children. A brother and sister coming from the ocean decide to eat a fish together instead of taking it back home. This was during the kapu system that did not allow male and female to eat together. Possibly the only time the kapu ai was broken up until Liholiho ate with his mother Kaahumanu after the death of Kamehameha...

Pa'ahana is a song written about a woman that runs away from home and lives in the mauka regions of Waiawa feeding on opae, shrimp and guava. 

Na Wa'a Li'ili'i Kiolea

"The Long Small Canoes"

This wahi pana in the ahupuaa of  Ka'alaea, hearkens to the ancient times when paramount chiefs of the Pacific journeyed vast distances just by the winds, currents, stars and beckoning of gods. All of which they had great knowledge of. They are cherished in story until this day and this place may have been a symbol to their memory, now lost to development. Sadly like most of our beloved wahi pana are.

It isn't exactly stated whom the cherished individuals were to have inspired the original memorial. Mo'ikeha, the brother of Olopana is said to have returned to Hawaii and lived near here for some time before settling in Kauai. His son Kiha is said to have traveled to Kahiki possibly to return his father's bones but also to retrieve Mo'ikeha's foster son La'a to be a ruler in Hawaii. 

La'a is definitely connected with this area as he lived in Kaneohe for sometime. Building a heiau and home near the exact spot where he landed. Kahai a descendant of Mo'ikeha lived in the nearby district of Hakipu'u and is famed as the furthest travelling chief to ever sail out of the known parts of the world to ancient Polynesia at the time... 

Na Wa'a Li'ili'i Kiolea was once a stone structure on the shores of Ka'alaea, a beach called Mahinahina. It is said to have been a stone canoe where travelers from Kahiki landed and spread sand from their homeland on the shore. They also are said to have brought a mapu tree not found on these islands previously.

Kaipuiolea, is named as the person to have done so from the historian Kamakau.

The story of sand sharing from distant lands is also connected to a place in Kaneohe called Na one a La'a, the sands of La'a. There are other stone canoe legends connected to other places. Such as the one once found at Allen Davis beach, heralding Pele's arrival. A tidal wave in 1947 displaced that one.

Sometime during the construction of the first road around the island, eventually becoming Kamehameha Hwy. A group of road workers decided to break up Na Wa'a Li'ili'i Kiolea and use the rocks as material in the road. Some of the local workers rejected the idea but the haole workers led by a "hardened man" went ahead and did destroy the structure. 

The stones were under strict kapu up until that moment in time and no one was allowed to disturb them. This kapu may have been the cause of the haole workers apparent death after their deed...

"As you come from Koolauloa as far as Waiahole, and pass Hakuikukui, you will pass Aulili Point on the lower side of the slope; your feet will then tread on the sand. That is the sand of Mahinahina. You will then find One-Huna, One-Hali and Ka-ipo-o-Lea. Look toward the windward side and you will find the small stone canoes called Na-wa'a-liilii-kiolea..." 

-Kamakau

Pahukini Heiau

Pahukini Heiau has eluded me for long enough and this past weekend I finally took the time out to visit it. My first attempt was quickly shut down years ago as I tried to drive up to it from the Kapaa Dump Station. 

A few of the heiau in the district of Kailua and Kaneohe were built by Olopana and even have a similar look as far as wall width and height. Like that of Kawa'ewa'e Heiau on the other side of Mahinui ridge. Back when I visited that heiau I was under the impression that there was only one chief named Olopana. But now I am open to the idea that there was another chief named Olopana generations after the voyaging Olopana of Waipio and Kahiki. He may have been the one that built at least five heiau in the Koolaupoko moku and had dealings with the legendary Kamapua'a.

Pahukini means many drums, but it has other possible older names like Mo'okini simular to the heiau Pa'ao made in Hawaii island. It seems to relate together as there is also another name of the heiau, Makini which means many deaths. Pa'ao brought the sacrificial religion to Hawaii and it spread throughout the rest of the island chain eventually. Pahukini may have been a newer name created by onlookers at a distance hearing the drums of the practices going on away from view.

Speculation aside, sometimes heiau are built over older structures and used for totally different means. After the Kapu system fell to Christianity and then development came in, and finally all of the kupuna passed away. Who are we to profusely say that we know exactly what each and every heiau was used for? 

In fact it's a wonder that this heiau still physically exists. Since one of it's walls almost slid down a man made cliff about 200 feet high, created from rock quarrying in the 50's. After that the dump took over and dumped rubbish near it. The landfill dirt would later be used as an aid to preserve the unstable wall from falling. By filling the area below it with stable ground.

Pahukini was placed on the National Register of Historic places in 1972.

In 1987 the community volunteers began restoring it by removing vegetation within and around the heiau. Finally archaeologists were able to study the site. It was rededicated 1988 and there were plaques placed here to commemorate its new life out in the open.

Caretakers still upkeep the area around the heiau. Maybe I can get involved in a clean up if they host them for the public...

This large stone has the bronze plaque on it's front side.

Most of the small ili'ili stones used as pavement inside of the heiau were stacked in piles during the restoration.

There in the distance is the furthest reach from the smaller section to the back of the southern heiau wall. There is a smaller enclosure there that i will get to later.

The smaller square section off of the north wall of the greater rectangle of the main heiau is covered in weeds.

 This meduim sized stone has been disturbed at some point in time and lies inches from its counterparts. It shows a round exterior but is flat on the other sides and looks to fit somewhere like a puzzle piece.

I made my way around the heiau from the north to the west wall.

Here is a view of the quarry on the other side of H3 Freeway tucked in the valley, Kapaa Quarry, Mahinui ridge, and the Koolau in the distance

The south west corner has a separate section not pictured in the image on the plague. I'm not sure if these were pilled in modern times or a separate structure

A little displaced  stone in the center is another example of a puzzle like shape that must have originally been design to fit perfectly in place.

Here is the south wall on the higher elevation.

From the top of the heiau there is a smaller enclosure inside with a short wall inside separating the rest of the heiau.

Finally here at the end of the cleared path around the heiau ends at the south east corner.

I made my way back to the northeast corner and noticed that it pointed almost exactly north...

A hui hou Pahukini...