Hawaii - Jeff Campbell [347]
GETTING THERE & AROUND
Getting to Haleakalā is half the fun. Snaking up the mountain it’s sometimes hard to tell if you’re in an airplane or a car – all of Maui opens up below you, with sugarcane and pineapple fields creating a patchwork of green on the valley floor. The highway ribbons back and forth, and in some places as many as four or five switchbacks are in view all at once.
Haleakalā Crater Rd (Hwy 378) climbs 11 miles from Hwy 377 near Kula up to the park entrance, then another 10 miles to Haleakalā summit. It’s a good paved road all the way, but it’s steep and winding. You don’t want to rush it, especially when it’s dark or foggy. And watch out for cattle wandering across the road.
The drive to the summit takes about 1½ hours from Pa′ia or Kahului, two hours from Kihei and a bit longer from Lahaina. If you need gas, fill up the night before, as there are no services on Haleakalā Crater Rd. On your way back downhill, be sure to put your car in low gear to avoid burning out your brakes.
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KAHO′OLAWE
Seven miles southwest of Maui, the sacred but uninhabited island of Kaho′olawe (sometimes referred to as Kanaloa) has long been central to the Hawaiian-rights movement. Many consider the island a living spiritual entity, a pu′uhonua (refuge) and wahi pana (sacred place).
Yet for nearly 50 years, from WWII to 1990, the US military used Kaho′olawe as a bombing range. Beginning in the 1970s, liberating the island from the military became a rallying point for a larger resurgence of Native Hawaiian pride. Today, the bombing has stopped, the navy is gone, and healing the island is considered both a symbolic act and a concrete expression of Native Hawaiian sovereignty.
Kaho′olawe is 11 miles long and 6 miles wide, with its highest point the 1482ft Luamakika. The island and its surrounding waters are now a reserve that is off-limits to the general public because of the wealth of unexploded ordinance that remains on land and in the sea.
PATHWAY TO TAHITI
The channel between Lana′i and Kaho′olawe, as well as the westernmost point of Kaho′olawe itself, is named Kealaikahiki, meaning ‘pathway to Tahiti.’ When early Polynesian voyagers made the journey between Hawaii and Tahiti, they lined up their canoes at this departure point.
However, Kaho′olawe was much more than an early navigational tool. Over 540 archaeological and cultural sites have been identified. They include several heiau (an ancient stone temple) and ku′ula (fishing shrine) stones dedicated to the gods of fishers. Pu′umoiwi, a large cinder cone in the center of the island, contains one of Hawaii’s largest ancient adze quarries.
A PENAL COLONY
In 1829, Ka′ahumanu, the Hawaiian prime minister, put forth her Edict of 1829, which declared that Catholics were to be banished to Kaho′olawe. Whether because of this or by coincidence, beginning in 1830, Kaulana Bay, on the island’s northern side, served as a penal colony for men accused of such crimes as rebellion, theft, divorce, breaking marriage vows, murder and prostitution. History does not say if Catholics were included, and the penal colony was shut down in 1853.
INTO THE DUST BOWL
Kaho′olawe, now nearly barren, was once a lush, forested island.
Considering it good for stock raising, the territorial Hawaiian government leased the entire island to ranchers in 1858. None was successful, and sheep, goats and cattle were left to run wild. By the early 1900s, 10s of thousands of sheep and goats had denuded the better part of the island, turning it into an eroded dusty wasteland (even today, Kaho′olawe looks hazy from dust when seen from Maui).
From 1918 to 1941, Angus MacPhee, a former ranch manager on Maui, ran Kaho′olawe’s most successful