Skip to main content

'Iao Needle

Because we'd been rained out on our first attempt at the 'Iao Needle, we decided to try it again the next day. 'Iao Valley is a beautiful area of dense rainforest as well as a botanical garden where you can wander around and enjoy nature.

"Commonly called 'Iao Needle, the traditional Hawaiian name for this 2,250 foot high peak is Kuka'omoku. This peak is known as the phallic stone of Kanaloa, Hawaiian god of the ocean."

I swear that's what the sign said. I'm not making that up.

Maui warriors would climb to the top of the needle as lookouts during war time. 'Iao Valley was the site of the Battle of Kepaniwai in 1790, which was a horrifically bloody battle, even by the standards of the time.


While you can not climb on the actual needle, you can climb 166 steps up to a lookout point where you can have a much closer view of the needle. The paths are well paved and the steps are easy, but my thighs were screaming the next day.

The botanical garden is small, but very pretty. There are many native plants on display. And someone living in a tent, but I wasn't sure if they were homeless or maybe a researcher of some sort.

The view in this area is stunning. I'm not much of one to wander around and look at leaves, but this truly was a gorgeous area.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ben's Feet

Ben went camping with his youth group this weekend. He said it was the best weekend he's had since we've been in Hawaii, and possibly in his entire life. The one negative part was that he stepped on some coral out in the water and cut his feet up pretty good. He swears it was all dead coral - you shouldn't touch live coral, much less walk on it because it damages the coral. No one ever mentions that it also damages your feet. They just tell you not to damage the coral. Also, coral is a living organism . If you step on live coral and a tiny piece breaks off in the cut, it will continue to grow. Did you see the movie Alien ? If some creature incubates in Ben's feet, then breaks out and eats us all one night, I'm going to be quite miffed. (Make sure you read the inscription on his tee shirt in this picture. It's quite appropriate.)
Post a Comment
Read more

Mammogram

I'm having my annual mammogram today. I always hear about how painful they are, but honestly, I've never thought they are that bad. Not the most comfortable, but not painful either. Every time I have a mammogram, I'm reminded of this story. It won the Erma Bombeck Writing Competition and I still get a kick out of it every time I read it. So I'm posting it here today for your reading pleasure: Erma Bombeck Writing Competition 1st place in Humor Category Winner Leigh Anne Jasheway of Eugene, Oregon "The First Time's Always the Worst" The first mammogram is the worst. Especially when the machine catches on fire. That's what happened to me. The technician, Gail, positioned me exactly as she wanted me (think a really complicated game of Twister - right hand on the blue, left shoulder on the yellow, right breast as far away as humanly possible from the rest of your body). Then she clamped the machine down so tight, I think my breast actually turned inside o...
1 comment
Read more

Japanese Fishing Shrine

Here's an interesting little spot we stopped to see. I'd passed this many times before and had never stopped to see what it was. Since GG and Sherry were here, we decided to check it out. There is a shrine of some sort with a statue and a carved rock. There was no information on sight as to what it is that I could find. There were flowers, food and incense left around the base of the shrine. There was a ceramic statue and a rock with a figure carved into it. None of the food was old or rotting (although plenty of it had clearly been pecked by birds) and the flowers were all fresh which made me think it must be cleaned and cared for on a regular basis. After we got home, I did some research and found this article about it from the Hawaii Star Bulletin, our local newspaper (I have edited out some bits, but otherwise the article is unchanged): "Maintenance" of the monument has been assumed by a group of Vietnamese Buddhists - Shingon Shu Hawaii, the Buddhist temple th...
2 comments
Read more