Sunday, April 1, 2012

Aloha to Maui - Haekii Heiau and Iao Valley


hawaiicity.com

We have a winner from last week's blogs - Catslady!   I'd like to share my photos from Maui.  It is called the Valley Isle as a land mass connects the younger East mountain, Haleakala, to the older West Mountain, Mauna Kahalawai.   The primary airport, Kahului, takes advantage of this flat land.   Before heading to our condo in Kihei, we explored the Halekii-Pihana Heiau State Monument:



From Hawaii Web (at this link),

Haleki'i and Pihanakalani Heiau are two of Maui's most accessible archeological sites. The lava foundation is the remains of these ancient heiaus, or Hawaiian temples, originally built in 1240. On occasion, some of these temples were used to perform human sacrifices to pay homage to the ancient gods. It is thought that Pihanakalani Heiau is probably the last site where Kamehameha I performed such sacrifices on Maui as a tribute to the war god, Ku. These heaius were reconstructed in 1958 and are on the National and State Registry of Historic Places. 





A deep sense of ancient Hawaiian history fills this site and makes the visit very worthwhile. The views of Wailuku and Kahului are also spectacular from this area.




We then drove over to the Iao Valley - site of a bloody battle between the invading Hawaii army and the defending Maui army.




From the Hawaii State Park website (at this link)

A paved 0.6 mile walk provides a scenic viewpoint of Kuka‘emoku ('Iao Needle), an erosional feature which abruptly rises 1200 feet from the valley floor.   This valley is rich in cultural and spiritual values and is the site of the battle of Kepaniwai where the forces of Kamehameha I conquered the Maui army in 1790.


 


Looking down at the stream, imagine it flowing with blood from the slaughtered men, women, and children.  Maui and Hawaii warred with each other for centuries.   Kamehameha of Hawaii finally conquered Maui and marched, er, paddled, on to the other islands to unite the islands as the Kingdom of Hawaii.




It was an overcast day so our pictures are not as glorious as the actual sights.   Still, the majesty of the Iao Valley is every present.  Have you visited a picturesque valley?  One randomly selected commenter from this week's blogs wins a book choice from my convention stash.   This giveaway is open to all readers.  Comments are open through Saturday, April 7, 10 pm in Hawaii.   I'll post the winner on Sunday, April 8.


Mahalo,


Kim in Hawaii


I've seen feral chickens and feral cats ... but never together until we visited the Iao Valley.




I have a new promotion for April - CLEAN OUT MY CONVENTION STASH. I will select one US reader, one Canadian reader, and one International reader from all my blogs posts in April at SOS ALOHA, THE READING REVIEWER, and ALOHA ON MY MIND. The US winner can select up to 10 books (to fill up a small flat rate box) from my current convention stash to make room for new books coming from RT 2012. The Canadian and International readers can select one book, too!

CLEAN OUT MY CONVENTION STASH is open through Monday, April 30, 10 pm in Hawaii. I'll post the winner on Tuesday, May 1.







13 comments:

  1. A picturesque valley...I have been up at Red Rock and when coming back down the mountain you can see right down into Las Vegas Valley. It's pretty cool, especially at night when you can see all the lights from far away.

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  2. Congrats, Catslady!

    I love the photo of the feral chicken and feral cat!

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  3. I've been in the Sacramento Mountains in New Mexico, near High Rolls and Cloudcroft, and the views are just phenomenal. I've also been in the Franklin Mountains overlooking El Paso and those are some pretty cool views as well.

    Congratulations, Catslady!!

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  4. More great photos, Kim. (I love the way that cat is looking at the chicken!)

    The Rhine River Valley through Germany is gorgeous.

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  5. Thanks for the win and the congratulations!!

    I know we saw some wonderful sights in Sedona, AZ. and like LSUReader, the Rhine River Valley. And Sugar Valley near State Collge, PA. Actually there are a lot around here with all the mountains, I just don't know all the names.

    My strays/ferals will be that close to raccoons and possums lol. As long as food is plentiful they will leave each other alone. Great pics.

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  6. Congrats Catslady!
    I love the photo of the cat and the chicken! We've seen some pretty valleys in Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah.

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  7. I've visited the Hudson Valley.

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  8. Hi Kim I have not visited a one but I would love to visits the ones ones in Arizona I have heard good things about them.

    Congrats to the Catslady and thank you Kim for wondeful posts !

    Desere

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  9. Very nice pictures. I've visited picturesque valleys in Europe.

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  10. Thanks for sharing, Kim! As for myself, I haven't had a chance to visit any picturesque valleys.

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  11. Great nice pics,
    Have not visited
    Kimh

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  12. love the pics

    i never visited it

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  13. Congrats Catslady. I have only visited one valley here in Chester NJ.It was just so beautiful and set apart from everything else.
    Carol L
    Lucky4750 (at) aol (dot) com

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