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.