Met Nina Wu from the Star Advertiser today. She was interviewing me about my book "Nelson Mandela, The Boy Called Troublemaker." I've added a link to the book -- can't believe it, but its No. 2 bestseller on Amazon today :) Mandela said that everything he needed to know in his complicated life he learned while growing up in the little village of Qunu.  The book is about Mandela's childhood. I hope you enjoy it. I grew up in South Africa and lived there for 20 years before coming to Hawaii. http://www.amazon.com/Nelson-Mandela-The-Boy-Called-Troublemaker-ebook/dp/B00H5ARQWI/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1386642868&sr=8-2&keywords=nelson+mandela+the+boy+called+troublemaker

Anyway -- back to Hawaii. Nina had just written about the turtles at Laniakea and she knew a lot more than I did. I love what she wrote so have added it here as I think everyone will enjoy it. The volunteers at the little cove have been tracking more than 20 turtles which are identified by their markings and scars and by tags.

There's Brutus, a 35-40 year-old male who lost part of his flipper to a tiger shark. Brutus has been hooked and entangled by he naps almost daily at Laniakea.

Hiwahiwa is a 35-year-old female with a fissure on her shell, likely from a watercraft collision. She has swam to the French Frigate islands several times.

Kaheka is a juvenile who was entangled and hurt by a fishing line and rescued and treated by a vet.

For a $25 donation you may symbolically adopt one of these honu and the funds go towards education and outreach. And you can also volunteer to be a Honu Guardian. See malamanahonu.org

Princess Kelea of Maui - a beautiful, daring princess from long ago

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00D6X6XBI

Read about Kelea, a Hawaiian princess who lived long, long ago. Kelea loved to surf and she was so good that she was called Kelea-who-was-born-with-a-fin. Kelea was daring. She was also very beautiful. Sometimes that is a dangerous combination. One day the beautiful princess went surfing and was stolen away.

Turtle Beach North Shore Oahu

                                          Photo by Brain Kusko

38. LANIAKEA BEACH or TURTLE BEACH

Laniakea Beach is where the turtles hang out—200 pound, friendly turtles who seem to actually like swimming and hanging out with humans. Of course the seaweed here must be tasty too, but that still doesn’t quite explain why the rock star turtles keep coming up to bask on the beach surrounded by their many fans.  Luckily for us, they do.

You are almost sure to see a green Hawaiian turtle in the pretty little cove at the right hand corner of the beach. Turtles make their way to shore through the channel and the boulders and coral reef act as a deterrent to the turtles’ natural predator, the tiger shark. Little turtle heads pop up and down out of the ocean and swimmers swim alongside turtles. Although you are supposed to keep six feet away, one turtle was so enthusiastic to get close that he nuzzled my friend’s tummy and pushed him right over.

Green Hawaiian turtles are an endangered species and the turtles are protected. Volunteers at the beach know many individual turtles by name. As some turtles are fitted with satellite transmitters, they can even tell you what a turtle does all day. For instance, Ipo, whose name means Sweetheart, during a monitored year spent a third of her days basking in the sun at Laniakea. During the nesting season in March, she swam 500 miles in 35 days to the French Frigate Shoals in the remote North Western Hawaiian Islands. During this long swim Ipo made sixteen deep ocean dives. She returned safely to Laniakea in September. Read about other turtles on www.malamanahonu.org/meethonu.asp.  In Ancient Hawaii, turtles symbolized the navigator able to find his way home again and again over hundreds of miles of open ocean. Some legends say turtles guided the Polynesians to the Hawaiian Islands as did the golden plover. Turtles were also revered as aumakua or guardian spirits.

One of those mighty voyaging chiefs arrived at this beach from Tahiti in around the 11^th or 12^th century and called the cove Laniakea, meaning Wide Sky. In his voyaging canoe he brought large lava rocks from the terrible, human sacrifice temple of Taputapuatea. Further up the coast, he built a temple or heiau and included the sacred rocks in the foundation. He called the heiau Kapukapuakea, a name showing how kapu or forbidden and sacred it was. It is said to have been a navigational heiau.

Laniakea also is known for its world-class waves. There is no restroom or lifeguard here—just a perfect cove, shade trees, and turtles.

DIRECTIONS: When you leave Haleiwa Town on the North Shore of Oahu, drive towards Waimea Bay. Roughly two miles along the Kamehameha Highway you will see a farm with lots of cows behind a white fence. You’ll also note lots of cars parked in the dirt on the mountainside of the road and people crossing the road. That’s where the turtles are.

OAHU -- THE BIRTHING STONES OF KUKANILOKO

6. KUKANILOKO, WAHIAWA

Birthing Place of Chiefs and Fertility and Healing stones

The time of the birth of the taboo chief,

The time when the Heavenly One pushed his way out,

The time when the bright one first saw the light,

At first faintly like the light of the moon,

At the season of Makali’i in the far past.

The Kumulipo, Hawaiian Creation Chant

Happy was the child born at Kukaniloko, the sacred birthing stone! The child would be called a Chief Divine, a burning fire. Kukaniloko means “to anchor the cry from within.”

The ancient sacred stones are gathered together near the green pineapple fields of Wahiawa.  The main stone, Kukaniloko, is a large, brown lava rock with a sculptured area that supported the mother in a semi-sitting position while she gave birth. There are two high, pointed spots on each side of the stone, where chiefs or priests would sit to assist.

For the royal mother, giving birth was rather a public experience. Thirty-six chiefs, eighteen on each side, surrounded her.  They came to witness the sacred birth and to give recognition to the bloodline and rank of mother, father, grandparents, and the newborn. The combined status of the parents determined the child’s status.

The selection of the attendants and the way the mother was placed on the stone was governed by strict kapu, sacred and forbidden, rules. Adherence to the kapu ensured the full sanctity of birth at this powerful place. If the mother had complete trust in the site and was properly positioned, the child would be born with honor and the gods’ blessings, and the mother would have an easy labor. A difficult delivery was a sign that the gods had not helped, and was viewed as a bad omen and a possible weakness in the bloodlines.

Thousands of maka’ainana (commoners) would witness the birth from the far side of the stream. Torches flared and drums beat, resounding through the valley, announcing the birth of a great chief.

Chiefs born here enjoyed the distinction, privileges, and taboos not accorded to ali’i, royal, children born elsewhere. Mighty chiefs born at Kukaniloko include:  Ma’ili-kukahi, a great warrior, Kakuhihewa, an honored chief, and a woman chief, Kukaniloko, known for educating the young.

History records instances of unfortunate royal women who went into labor and delivered their babies before reaching the birthstones. These children were considered “outside chiefs” and did not receive the special powers given those born at Kukaniloko. Kamehameha I, conqueror of the island of O’ahu, desired the full powers for his children and wanted his sacred wife, Keopuolani, to give birth at the birthing stone, but she was unable to because of ill health.

Other ancient, weathered stones surround the birthing stone. Some were considered to possess powers of blessings; others were considered evil. Some stones were said to hold guardian spirits who had the power to absorb pain.

The stones also had the reputation of being fertility stones; women would go here to pray to the gods for children, touch the stones, and make offerings. Many offerings are still seen at the stones today.

References:   Kamakau 1991:38 ; Sterling and Summers 1978:138-140; Ramirez, T., “Birthing Stones open for tours,” The Honolulu Advertiser, O’ahu, June 1,1998.

   

Are the guardian spirits still at Kukaniloko? Kalama, the Hawaiian kupuna, teacher, who explained the significance of the stones to me, related how he had been restoring a broken stone when he had clearly seen the figure of a man leaving the stone. Kalama’s ancestors were protectors of the stones, and his grandmother was born at this place. 

“Did this give her extra prestige and powers?” I asked.

“Indeed, it did,” he replied.

And then a strange thing happened. I began to feel deep pains. Maybe I was identifying with the mothers of the past. The last time I felt similar pains was when giving birth. This wasn’t an experience I wanted to repeat, and I sat down on the grass and red dirt. Kalama asked me if I felt alright.

“Yes,” I replied, not wanting to go into details before the tour guides and members of the Wahiawa Civic Club. 

 “Good,” Kalama said, “Because often women who come to this site experience birthing pains.”

Excerpt from the ebook Exploring Lost Oahu, Places of Power, History and Mystery

http://www.amazon.com/Exploring-Places-History-Mystery-ebook/dp/B009PSAN8W

KANEANA CAVE OAHU EXPLORING LOST HAWAII - PLACES OF POWER, HISTORY, MYSTERY AND MAGIC

Come Exploring Lost Hawaii-- here we are on the island of Oahu-- this is an excerpt from my ebook Exploring Lost Oahu, Places of Power, History, and Mystery. http://www.amazon.com/Exploring-Places-History-Mystery-ebook/dp/B009PSAN8W

And what better than a spooky place - full of legend -- a great place to explore --

2. KANEANA (MAKUA CAVE) WAI’ANAE DISTRICT

Home of the Shark God’s Son.

It led me downward,

In the heart of the Wai’anae mountains,

This cave of Makua;

It was dark, and damp, and very closed in,

And I am sure I felt an evil force

As if some dark, bloody deed had there been done;

So strong was this sense of malevolency

I hurried out

Into the warm sunlight,

Into the blinding day.

Stearns, Norah D., Honolulu Star Bulletin, Sept. 9, 1939

Mysterious Kaneana Cave was once a sea cave formed through the ages by the relentless power of the waves. It sits at the base of a cliff outcropping and is about 100 feet (30 m) high and 450 feet (137 m) deep. The cave is estimated to be around 150,000 years old and was once underwater.

At the entrance of the cave, a rock ledge about twenty feet above the floor of the cave has wave-rounded boulders deposited by the sea thousands of years ago. The floor of the cave is beach sand, covered by a black coating of particles that have dripped from the rocks through the long ages. The interior of the cave is huge and cavernous, unfortunately marked with graffiti. Dark, narrow passages lead to further caves, and black pits beckon the unwary. Take a flashlight and be careful where you step.

For those who like exploring, another less known cave, Upper Makua Cave, is also here. Head west on Farrington Highway for one hundred yards and look up. The large cave is on a ledge above the cliffs with a big kiawe tree at the entrance. The route up is unstable so take care not to slip and fall. The ocean view from the top is beautiful.

In ancient times, kahuna or priests conducted secret rituals at Makua Cave, and as recently as fifty years ago, religious rites were performed. In an old photograph, men can be seen standing within the cave’s far depths, conducting rituals in the light of flaming kukui torches.

The cave is the ancient, legendary home of the shark god’s son. This horrible personage could change from shark to man at will. As a handsome young man, he lured travelers into his cave, and then changed back into a shark and ate them on his slimy, white stone altar at the back of the cave’s watery depths. He was finally captured and killed by angry neighbors.

For more on this site and directions -- also description of the hikes to this and the cave above -- see Exploring Lost Oahu, Places of Power, History and Mystery