It’s almost ironic that our theme for this year’s blog is “The Heaths Invade Hawaii”, because the location we visited on this day was the apex of one of Hawaii’s most notable invasions. In 1795, King Kamehameha ruled the island of Hawaii. He wanted to be ruler of all the Hawaiian islands, but the others were still under the control of another ruler named Chief Kaumuali’i of Kaua’i. In May of that year King Kamehameha left Hawaii’s “big island” along with the largest army the Hawaiian islands had ever seen (10,000 warriors) to go claim his throne and dominance over all the Hawaiian islands. He defeated Maui and Molokai easily, then he was met in Waikiki (on Oahu) by warriors from Chief Kaumauli’i, and the final battle ensued. With the help of Western weapons (most notably canons), King Kamehameha pushed the opposing forces up the Nu’uanu Valley to the top of the mountain at modern day Pali Lookout. This is a razor sharp ridge along the top of the Ko’olau Mountain Range which separates the windward and leeward sides of the island of Oahu. From the Pali lookout, you can see panoramic views of the Eastern coast of Oahu, and the winds that rush up the mountain face are funneled and accelerated by the terrain until they amass as hurricane force gales at the top of the ridge. So much so that it is told that many of the 400 Maui warriors that lost their lives that day in 1795 in the Battle of Kaleleka’anae (“leaping fish”) as they were pushed off the 1000 foot cliff, simply floated in the air and hovered in place like apparitions. Leading to many modern day superstitions and ghost stories about this mountain and range. We can TOTALLY believe that, because the winds up there certainly seemed supernatural on the day we visited. It actually got dangerous at one point and we had to seek shelter....we were surprised there were not any warning signs about the winds. See the videos for some actual footage on our trip there. To wrap up the story about King Kamehameha...he ended up defeating the other Chief’s troops, signing a treaty, and becoming the first of a 100+ year dynasty of Kings to peacefully rule the Hawaiian islands...that is, until (you guessed it), the United States stepped in and overthrew the dynasty in 1893, then subsequently annexed Hawaii as a US territory. It wasn’t until November of 1993 when Bill Clinton signed the Apology Resolution that the US finally admitted and apologized for its role in overthrowing the Kingdom of Hawaii. To this very day, we are seeing many local native Hawaiians donning “De-occupy Hawaii” stickers on their cars. Who would have known that a scenic overlook could have contained so much history, huh?
