The Big Island: Pu'uhonua o Honaunau

Pu'uhonua o Honaunau is a National Historic Park on the beach below Captain Cook. Part of the park was an important residence of the royal chiefs next to a sheltered canoe landing on Honaunau Bay. The other part, separated by a large stone wall, was called Pu'uhonua, or Place of Refuge. This area was cut off from the rest of the island by a large stone wall stone wall, and contained around a dozen residences scattered among palms on the lava.

Strolling through the park leads past fish ponds, numerous foundations and stone artifacts, and some recreated structures.

Here you can see the stone wall leading to the chief's residence.

The Place of Refuge was a kind of asylum for noncombatants and defeated warriors during periods of war, and for people who broke sacred laws. If a warrior was defeated in battle (and still lived) they could seek shelter in the place of refuge until the war was over. At that time they could pledge allegiance to the victors.

The ancient Hawaiians were extremely opposed to texting on cellphones. First they invented an entire language that made texting as inefficient as possible. Then they created a set of Sacred Laws, punishable by death to prevent people from not paying attention while texting. If you were walking around texting and allowed your shadow to fall on property of the Royal Residence, then you could be put to death. The same fate awaited those who weren't paying attention and started following in the Chief's footsteps.

If, instead of accepting your fate, you chose to run for your life, you would be pursued relentlessly. Failure to punish someone in violation of sacred laws could anger the gods, who might then create terrible Hawaiian style disasters. If, however, the law breaker made it over the wall to the pu'uhonua, they were safe, and a priest could then conduct a ceremony of absolution, after which the offender could return to society.

Totems warn strangers approaching from the sea.

Waves of stone meet waves of water. The seas look rough at times.....

...but the water is teaming with life just under the surface.

Along the shore the bottom is clean stone dotted with corals.

There were Yellow Tangs all over the place.

Place of Refuge has a third name, known by snorkelers/divers as Two-Step. This is in reference to an "easy" place to get into the ocean off the lava. By "step" they mean a set of 3 foot ledges, and by "easy" they mean for experienced people on an uncrowded day during calm seas. As pretty as the area is above water, it's even prettier below. We went snorkeling here on 4 mornings. We noticed that if we could get down there by 7 am, we could have a good time until 9 am, when hoards of people show up in tour boats and all jump into the water making it both difficult to see and extremely annoying to move about.

A Parrotfish. There were a lot them in the area.

Farther out the bottom got deeper and there were some fun mini canyons between reefs.

Ornate Butterflyfish

The first time out i found the water was a lot colder than i expected and my snorkel didn't work properly. The second day i had a new snorkel, and being able to breath made things much more enjoyable. Everyone told us you were almost guaranteed to see dolphins and turtles in Honaunau Bay, but we didn't see either of them. We did have a lot of fun in the water, and it was nice both to have already done something significant and to have achieved some good exercise by the time i would normally be waking up in bed.

A bit farther still and strips of sandy bottom began making an appearance.

The Humuhumunukunukuapua'a is the official state fish of Hawaii.

Maree snorkeling around.

These Needlefish were really cool and usually hung out in groups of three or four. They were very good at maintaining a constant distance away from me and were often stationary if left alone.