Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Aloha to Kauai - Wailua River Valley



The Wailua River is sacred to Kauai.   We set out to discover the several heiau (temples) along the waterway. Behind the children is the Holoholokū Heiau, the Pōhaku Hoʻohānau (birthing stone), and Pōhaku Piko (umbilical stone), where women of high rank would give birth and bury the umbilical cords.


Up river (and upland), the Poliʻahu Heiau hosted luakini (human) sacrifices. It is kapu (forbidden) to enter the heiau without proper ceremony.


The Wailua Heritage Trail preserves the ancient culture - check out its website at this link


From Hawaii Web (at this link),

Wailua River is a long, slowly meandering river that starts at the Wai'ale'ale Crater and is fed by several tributaries on the way to the ocean. This is the only navigable river in all of Hawaii. Several forks in the river lead to waterfalls and can be easily explored by kayak. The most popular river trip is to the sacred Fern Grotto. Flat bottom cruise boats carry visitors 40 minutes up the river to this natural wonder. At the mouth of the river are several large stones with ancient petroglyphs carvings on them. Viewing of these stones is dependant on the amount of sand in the area. Heavy rains often wash away the sand and reveal the carvings. 


Heading back to the river's mouth, we stopped by the Hikinaakalā Heiau - House of the Rising Sun ...


... plus the Hauola Pu'uhonua - Place of R
efuge.  Again, we respected the kapu and skirted around the stone perimeter. Have you visited any historical "places of worship" that have inspired you? One randomly selected commenter from this week's blogs will win a book choice from my convention stash. This giveaway is open to all readers. Comments are open through Saturday, March 31, 10 pm in Hawaii. I'll post the winner on Sunday, April 1.

Mahalo,

Kim in Hawaii

We stopped by a kayak rental facility and found a furry friend!

  

March Madness continues here at SOS Aloha! All commenters in March will be entered into a special drawing for prizes from RT in Chicago. 3 US, 3 Canadian, and 3 international readers will win a package with books and goodies. Comments can be made at:

- SOS Aloha, sosaloha.blogspot.com
- Aloha On My Mind, alohaonmymind.blogspot.com
- My guest posts at the Reading Reviewer (Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday) at marygramlich.blogspot.com

I'll post the winners of March Madness on Monday, April 2.


15 comments:

  1. I've visited historical places of worship. They're very inspiring.

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  2. I don't think I have. At least I can't think of any.
    I loved the picture with the cat, how cute is that.

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  3. I've been to some ancient Buddhist temples in Japan and Hong Kong.

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  4. aloha Kim love the name house in the rising sun, cool:D. I HAVE Visited many budhist temples, church, etc, because i love to know more Gods and religious life:) ARETHA ZHEN

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  5. I lvoe visiting churches all over Europe. They are so peaceful,

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  6. I've been to the Fern Grotto there. It is lovely. I'm really enjoying your tour of Kauai.

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  7. love to visit buddha temple in my country :)

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  8. would love to visit there
    blackroze37

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  9. love the civil war graveyard and the indian mounds


    blackroze37

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  10. I totally love the pics and the cat one is just tooooo cute I so do love cats thanks Kim for another awesome post !

    Mahalo,
    Desere

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  11. Hi Kim -

    The picture of your son with the cat took me back to when my sons were that age. We use to go on "mystery trips" which drove my husband crazy! We all pack into the car and I'd have the boys pull N-S-E-W out of a hat and that's the way we would head!

    One time we ended up in Gettsburg - guess what they found on the battlefield? Yup, a cat! The kitten brought a little sunshine into our day after having to explain to our boys what took place all around us years ago. For my husband and I we thought of the children in that war about the same as our sons were at the time who were on that very battlefield.

    I think that learning the culture and history around us is a lesson that needs to be taught to all us not and not just in a classroom.

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  12. We have some historical churches in our area but I haven't visited them.

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  13. I couldn't remember having visited a historical place of worship and asked my husband. His immediate response? "Not unless you count Texas Motor Speedway". Yup. Gets interesting at my house! Great post, Kim.

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  14. No, I haven't been to any places like that. That would be very nice to see some day!

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