Wailua River

The Wailua River was known not only in Hawaii, but Polynesia. Because so much tourism is in the area, one would not notice the plethora of ancient sites in the area. But because Wailua was so important to the Hawaiians, and, a lot of the structure still remained, it became apparent to me that finding these ancient sites became a primary mission.

I've always been enamored with ancient sites. My webpage has a huge section dedicated to Oahu Ancient Sites. But because Oahu has been run down, much of the ancient sites don't exist anymore. That is not the case on the neighbor island where they took it upon themselves to try preserve as much as they could.

Along the Wailua River, there is an abundant amount of ancient sites. Will start with the hotel we stayed at, Hilton Garden Inn. Literally 50 feet from the hotel are a handful of ancient sites. The start is will call #1 which is called Hikina'a'kala which translates to 'the rising sun'. Hawaiians celebrated the sun rising from this area. I do say the sun rise on a clear day is special. I caught a glimpse of it on the second day we were here.

Near #1 is site #2 Hualoa a.k.a. pu'uhonua which is a place of refuge. Hawaiian culture is so interesting in that if you do break the kapu system, you are put to death. However, if you go to a place of refuge, you are saved and in the clear. At these sites are suppose to be #3 ancient petroglyphs, I saw one there, but heard that its in the water.

Up the road is what I will call site #4 called Holoholoku heiau. About 20 feet north of this heiau is the birthing stones will call #5. I tried to take a nice picture of the stones (Pohaku Ho'ohanau & Pohaku Piko), but it came out blurry. Birthstones symbolized royalty, where I believe that chiefs from around the island would walk to the stones to participate in the ceremony of a newly born child from an ali'i chief's wife.