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Published: March 4th 2009
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Rob had to return to Hilo to lead another shorter Elderhostel so we sadly say "Aloha" and "Mahalo" ("thank you"). Susan and Rob made a great pair during the past week. Both are incredibly knowledgeable and experienced with everything from every kind of work people can do on the islands to the inner workings of the National Park Service! We were grateful to have had him along.
After a buffet breakfast (meals at the hotels so far had been generous buffets which fueled our extensive walks), we rode to the Kona Historical Society site.
Marty describes this visit very well at
http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Hawaii/Big-Island/Kailua-Kona/blog-372748.html
I would add that during the visit, I usually carried the camera, Ann's purse, and my own bag with binoculars and other stuff. I confess that I felt a real affinity to the "Kona Nightingale" pictured with the Japanese farmer on a board near the entrance sign of the Kona Historical Society site.
I also think that the Greenwell plantation began breaking up as he concentrated on the store. The workers he had imported, mostly Japanese but many from other countries, were ceded plots to be family farms. Greenwell made his wealth through being
"Kona Nightingale"
Beast of burden that worked with the farm family a merchant, though he did not overcharge his farmers. Most farms still belong the the families who originally received them.
As Marty points out, the coffee is still harvested by hand and the farmers raise food for their family tables between the rows of coffee trees. She is right about the oranges. The Washington Navel she pictures me plucking from the tree was fantastic.
On the way to the next historical park, our bus stopped at another of the "painted" churches like the one that had been saved from Pele in Kalapana. The artist took the plain flat white walls of the interior of the church and painted those walls to give the impression of depth by use of perspective. Enlarge the picture by clicking on it and then carefully study the surfaces of the walls. The simple box of a church looks like a cathedral with apses and windows. The ceiling is built like the bottom of a ship inverted over the sanctuary. The artist brings Hawai'ian themes of trees and stars to that ceiling.
We then rode from that holy place to another.
The heiau we visited was spectacular. Pu'uhonau o Honaunau National Historic
Park is where "pu'uhonau," refugees from the tribal wars or from violating Kapu, could come for refuge. Like Old Testament cities of refuge (see Numbers 35, Joshua 20, and I Chronicles 6), those who reached them without being caught and killed could stay and be safe. Under Kapu, an arrangement was made that a priest could pronounce forgiveness and the refugee could return home safely.
That "city of refuge" phenomenon applied to all of the heiaus throughout the Hawai'ian Islands. They are everywhere, though some are more accessible than this one we visited. Here the best way to gain safety was to swim the half mile across the harbor unseen by anyone on shore until the refugee could slip up behind the tikis or great temple.
Around the temple of this heiau is a remarkable wall. It illustrates just how capable engineers those ancient Hawai'ians were to put up such smooth and stable walls without mortar, on a volcanic island with earthquakes as well as eruptions.
The heiau also was the site for tribes to settle their differences without going to war. There was a board game popular for its complex strategies. The leaders who were in
Provisions list
Click on the picture to enlarge and read. conflict would use the game as an alternative to having their respective warriors slain in a bloody battle. They would face off over the stone game "board." The winner won the dispute and the loser was killed on the spot.
Two of our men sat at that "board" for pictures for a very few minutes!
Susan showed us what looked like natural ponds. Those were intentionally built both on the lava beach and in the marshes inland in order to raise fish. The ones close to the heiau temple were for the "ali'i." She told us the story of how Kamehameha decided one day while visiting this temple that he preferred the fatter fish from fish pools in Hilo and asked his chief messenger to run back to bring him some.
The story was an excellent one but I won't tell you how it came out. You'll have to attend one of her Elderhostels! . . . Actually, I forgot, but I thought that would be a clever way to encourage you to attend one of these magnificent programs.
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Marty
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I love your biblical references as well as the reference to my TBlog