Day 8
While we spend our last full day in Kauai
exploring its longest beach, on the western shore, and snorkeling near our
condo looking for sea turtles, you should learn with us a bit more of the human
history of this area.
Hawaiʻiloa, according to Hawaiian
legend, was the Polynesian navigator who discovered these islands; he named
this particular island Kauaʻi, for his favorite son. The island people here spoke a distinct
dialect, which is still being spoken on the nearby island of Niʻihau, visible
to us as we traveled around the southwestern coast. The Hawaiian language uses
only 14 letters, the letter k being perhaps the most popular consonant. The people of Ni’ihau still pronounce it with
a “t” sound, just as the ancient Polynesians.
Polihale Beach, west coast of Kauai
Until Cook’s landing here in the late 18th
century, the islands were governed as separate kingdoms and had a population
estimated at 300,000. This was ended
with the reign of King Kamehameha, when the islands of Kauaʻi and Niʻihau were
the last to be brought under his rule.
It took three tries, the first two involving tremendous armadas of ships
and canoes. The third effort was the
charm, when the king of these two islands took one look and blinked. He joined the kingdom without a fight, ceding
the islands to the Kingdom of Hawai’i upon his death in 1824. Within 100 years, there were less than
50,000, and today there are well under 1,000 pure Hawaiians.
Before long, the islands were under the
control of five corporations, all of which included descendants of the island’s
nobility. You could not do business in
Hawaii without the consent of this consortium.
Only Sears Roebuck & Co. was able to break the monopoly when it
opened a store in O’ahu; when the families announced their ships would not
bring Sears goods to Hawaii, Sears announced it would buy a steamship
line. The families wisely relented.
When the last of the Kamehameha line
died childless, a new king was elected by popular vote in 1873 and a new
lineage was established. That ended in
1873, when a coup supported by the business cartel was backed by American marines (sent by President Harrison
to “support American lives”) and the queen surrendered to the U.S.
Ambassador. Although incoming President
Grover Cleveland was angered at this veiled takeover of an independent country,
eventually the whole place was annexed by the United States in 1898, following
a vote in which relative few Hawaiians were allowed to vote because of property
and income qualifications imposed by the original conspirators. So the later words of U.S. Senator S. J.
Hayakawa have great historical significance to the people of the state: “We should keep the Panama Canal; after all,
we stole it fair and square.”
Years later, when Ike grew bored with reviewing his plans for the interstate highway system, he decided to add Alaska as a
state. But when the Democrats in
Congress realized that would add two U.S. Senate seats for the Republicans,
they made him throw in something for them.
They searched around and found a great place in the middle of the Pacific that was sure to vote correctly in the future. And there you have the brief story of how Hawaii became our 50th
state in 1959. Now, on to Maui.
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Day 9
While the flight this morning over to Maui was
uneventful, we had two surprises awaiting us.
First, the city adjoining the airport was huge, compared to the past
week’s experiences. Four lane highways,
traffic lights, traffic jams, and shopping centers. What a mess. We headed out for the eastern tip of the
island as quickly as possible.
Our first waterfall in Maui
The second surprise was the road along
the north and east coasts. Winding and
narrow, with more one-lane bridges than you could count and no place to pass or
to pull over, it was no place for the timid driver. Some places the road was so narrow the
double yellow lines were gone; there was no room for them. Speed limits of 5 to 20 mph insured we would take forever to reach our destination (not to mention the stops every 100 yards or so to take photos along the coast).
Third waterfall in Maui
We stopped to see a few waterfalls, but
the flow was low on this day, and they didn’t compare with what we had seen in
Kauai. When we finally reached the
little village of Hana, we realized it would take an hour to drive the 7 miles
out to our accommodation and back into town—maybe more, after dark. One of the two restaurants in town was closed
for a private party, and we were told the other place would cost $100. 00 per
person. With that last bit of news, we promptly headed out for a shack on the beach that served a huge plate of huli
huli chicken and trimmings for ten bucks.
They even threw in free music with the meal. We may end up liking this place.
Local music star at the Koki Beach Chicken Shack
We have decided to give up on the museums, symphonies, art galleries, and theaters. In a place like this, who needs them? We’re going to spend a few days sunning on the
beaches and swimming in the waterfall pools, and will report back then, from
the western part of the island. We have
a lunch date there with a high school classmate whom Charlie hasn’t seen in nearly 50
years.
Charlie and
Tricia
©2013
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