Hawaii

Hawaiian Polynesians

We arrived on the island of Oahu at Honolulu in February 1993. One of the first of its many attractions we saw was the famed beach of Waikiki. It was an instant disappointment. We were surprised and dismayed that the beautiful beach we had expected to see was completely obscured by people and their paraphernalia. It was so pathetically packed it was difficult to see the sand. We did not tarry.

Honolulu and Waikiki Beach

Balcony of our Hotel Overlooking the Beach of Waikiki photo by G. Wilson

Our second surprise was to learn that many native Hawaiians still resented the takeover of their tiny kingdom by the U.S. We became aware of this because of the strong public reaction of Hawaiians to a book then high on the best-seller list. To Steal A Kingdom was a searing, searching look at the history of Hawaii. The popularity of this probe into paradise marked almost to the day the 100th anniversary of the takeover of the tiny Pacific kingdom by its huge neighbour to the east.

At 3:00 p.m. on 17 January 1893, the U.S. Marines invaded Oahu in order it was said, "to secure the safety of American life." They never left.

To Steal A Kingdom by Michael Dougherty

The sovereign ruler of the island kingdom, Queen Liliuokalani, fearful of a heavy loss of Polynesian life, opted to avoid a collision of armed forces. She felt her mission was to preserve the islands for their native residents, but she yielded temporarily to the superior might of the Americans under protest until such time "as the Government of the United States re-instates me in authority as the Constitutional Sovereign of the Hawaiian Islands." The wait was a long one for she was arrested and charged with treason and imprisoned in her palace where she remained for nine months. Her restoration was not to be for the existence of the Kingdom of Hawaii came to an abrupt and jarring end that January day 100 years ago. Queen Liliuokalani, the last reigning monarch of the Hawaiian islands, dropped out of the pages of history.

After the deed had been done, Grover Cleveland, President of the United States, expressed his torment and tribulation at the takeover. "Hawaii is ours. As I look back upon the first steps in this miserable business and as I contemplate the means used to complete the outrage, I am ashamed of the whole affair." Despite his mortification at the military manoeuvre, Polynesian activists observed that no move was made to undo the damning affair. Letters to the editor pledged that the sovereignty issue would not go away "until is has been settled to everyone's satisfaction."

Queen Liliuokalani Last Monarch of the Hawaiian Islands reigned from 1891-1893.

Sovereign's Palace photo by G.Wilson

The day we visited Pearl Harbour was an almost cloudless Sunday with only the whisper of wind, a day that no doubt duplicated that long-gone Sunday when on December 7th at 7:55 a.m., "a day that will live in infamy," the silence of that peaceful Sabbath day was abruptly broken by the dreadful drone of a great many airplanes on a deadly mission.

USS Arizona photo by G. Wilson

Some 4000 people visit the site almost daily. Admission is free and all are processed quickly and courteously in batches of 150 every 20 minutes or so. Visitors to this sacred site quietly watched and whispered as the guide explained details of the disaster. The focus, the Memorial, which appears from a distance to float on the water, is the battleship Arizona. That vessel received the most damage and suffered the most casualties. The ship was hit by an 1800 pound bomb that exploded the ship's fuel tank and touched off 1.7 million pounds of explosives.

The vessel sank in nine minutes and from the crew of 1177 men only 75 bodies were ever recovered. Included among those entombed in the sunken ship were members of the Arizona's, band which the previous evening in a contest of ships' bands had come second playing the song, "I Don't Want to Set the World On Fire." Their reward was to be able to sleep in that morning. Some crew members did survive the blast and they all have requested when they pass on to rejoin their shipmates. Consequently, when they die their ashes are lowered into the rusting hold of the ship in a stainless steel cylinder built for that purpose.

Pearl Harbour photo by G. Wilson

The architect of the Memorial is an Austrian who fled from Hitler's Vienna in 1939 and sought haven in Honolulu. A banyon tree near the water faces the Arizona. On that fateful morning following the terrific blast, the tree's branches were said to have snagged limbs and letters blown from the exploding ship. The branches have since taken the shape of a mushroom cloud and the tree is commonly called 'Hiroshima Banyon.'

Sugar Cane

Sugar cane fields were a common sight all over Oahu and Maui. Hawaii provides 15 per cent of all U.S. sugar, three-quarter of which is used for industrial purposes. The tall green grass waving in the wind is an omni-present plant cultivated on thousands of acres. Polynesians brought it to the islands more than 1000 years ago. Sugar cane starts out as 18-inch cane stalk cuttings which are planted with fertilizer. The cane grows to a height of 30 feet by harvest time. As new leaves sprout from nodes on the stalk, old leaves die off, so just prior to harvesting in order to eliminate the tons of dry leaf litter and also improve the cane juice quality, the fields are torched. This creates a roaring inferno that races across the fields trailing with great clouds of billowing smoke. When the fire is finished, the stalks, protected from the flames by their high moisture content and tough outer covering, are ready for harvesting. Environmental concerns are now being raised about the burning.

Our ultimate destination was the island of Maui with which we were never disappointed. We spent a good deal of time at Lahaina on the west coast of Maui. It is a popular, bustling, historic, little tourist town that combines much to attract visitors. One of its former residents of note holds a special interest for Canadians. This individual was once a Mountie, but with a difference. He failed to get his man. George Freeland, a six-foot five 300-pound Englishman, emigrated from England to Vancouver where in the latter part of the 19th century he became a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. In 1900 he received what must have seemed a choice assignment: to hurry to Hawaii to find, arrest and return to Canada a criminal who had fled from the country. George failed to find the felon and rather than return empty-handed from Hawaii, he resigned from the force and stayed in Hawaii. The island he chose was Maui, the second youngest and second largest of the peaks that poked through the sea to form this mammoth mountain chain.

While George was less than lucky as a lawman, his success as a salesman was superb for he convinced 60 solid citizens to ante up $7500 with which he formed the Pioneer Hotel Company. In 1901 he built a hotel on the busy corner of Hotel and Front streets. Advertised then as the 'Haven for Whalers and World Travellers', the hotel featured 'breakfast, lunch, dinner, grog and rooms.'

You must pay your room in advance.
Women is not allowed in you room.
If you wet or burn you bed, you going out.
You are not allow to gambel in you room.
Only on Sunday you can sleep all day.
No sitting in the dinering room or the kitchen when drunk.
You must use a shirt when you come to the seating room.
If you can't keep this rules please don't take the room.

Pioneer Hotel photo by G.Wilson

Despite the room restrictions, the hotel prospered and George formed subsidiary companies that included the Pioneer Salon, the Pioneer Theatre and the Pioneer Wholesale. When George died in 1925, he left his considerable fortune to a petite Hawaiian woman whom he had won away from the only doctor in town. The couple had three sons and four daughters. One of the sons, Haines Bert Freeland, was a great swimmer who broke the Olympic gold medal record of none other than the famed Johnny Weismuller, better known to movie-goers as Tarzan.

When Haines retired he spent his latter days in Lahaina enjoying his libation beneath the limbs of an old banyon tree. He kept his liquor in a mail box fastened to the tree. Big as life in the lobby is old Haines, the stump of the tree and the same mail box in which he left his libation.

Haines, Tree Trunk and Mail Box photo by G.Wilson

When Haines died in 1968 his body was consigned to the sea off the coast of Lahaina from the deck of the ship Allure.

Geri and Bill on Lahaina and Pacific Railroad Train

Nothin' could be fina than to be in Lahaina under the big Banyon Tree photo by G. Wilson

Lahaina, which means 'merciless sun' was once the whaling capital of the world. Nowadays in the winter months, money is made not from their flesh but from their frolic when these gentle giants, the Humpback whales, migrate to Maui to give birth and with their calves wallow in the waves of the warm waters off the coast of this beautiful island.

Two Whale Watchers

Visitors other than human beings seek the sun and the sea of those southern climes. They are the 10-ton behemoths which travel southward from the frozen north in December to find their place in the precincts of paradise. The whales are objects of intense fascination and excitement and a whale-watching excursion is as much a 'must' for visitors to the island of Maui as a trek up Diamond Head or a visit to Pearl Harbour. Few do not thrill to the sight of a spout and the shout, "Thar she blows." Accompanying each 'blow' is the characteristic plume of vapour consisting of a fine spray of water and oil. It represents the exhalation by the whale of hot, moisture-laden air from its lungs by way of its blowhole or spout. Each such breath replaces up to 80-90 per cent of the air in the lungs.

Humpbacks, the most common species of whale in the area, spend the summer in the Bering Sea's cool, plankton-rich feeding grounds, where they consume up to a ton of anchovies and krill each day. This blubber build-up sustains them for the winter, for during their December- April sojourn in the deep, blue waters of Maui, they eat little or nothing. Whales are the biggest animals that ever lived and have an ancestry that goes back 100 million years when they began evolving from land inhabitants to aquatic creatures. A whale's life is not long, normally less than 40 years. Its sight is not good but its hearing is acute. It is able to locate the sound of other members of the herd three miles away.

Whales Watched photo by G. Wilson

One interesting ride in the beautiful countryside took us to a tiny cemetery on a remote and peaceful point overlooking the ocean, It contained the grave of Charles A. Lindbergh, lionized for making the first solo flight to Europe from the United States and subsequently loathed for his laudation of the Nazi war machine.

Lindburgh's Grave photo by B. Wilson

If it's roads that wind you want, try a trip down the southeast coast of Hana. The highway along the windward side of the island writhes through the jungle, twisting and turning back upon itself like some tormented snake. The slender asphalt ribbon narrows in places to one lane and passes through a rain forest of hills, deep valleys and waterfalls.

"You've experienced the wet side of the island, now try the dry." We took up this challenge and continued around the southeast tip of Maui. We wanted to see as much of the scenery as we could and in order to do so, we had to leave the main road. Although a little leery about turning off, we were told we could drive there and that the scenery would make it worth while. Dubious but undaunted, we started off and for awhile all was well. We began to feel not a little concerned when we found ourselves running out of road and entering upon a trail of stones that for all we knew led nowhere. Some of the rocks imbedded in the earth protruded so that in some places we had to swing off onto grass to prevent doing dire damage to the underside of the rented car. Keep calm.

A Risky Ride on a Rotten Road photo by G. Wilson

Road to the Sea photo by G. Wilson

The drive along the south coast was breathtakingly beautiful. On our right, the massive brooding height of Haleakala, a volcano whose bleak, black slopes were scorched by molten cinders when it last erupted in 1790. It is the largest dormant volcano in the world.

Lava Leads to the Sea photo by G. Wilson

To our left the blue ocean that close to shore blended seamlessly into exquisite turquoise. Within a distance of just 10 miles or so, we had gone from the jungle growth of a rain forest drenched by torrential downpours averaging 300 inches a year to a parched and arid desert place that received less than 30 inches in the same period - all just part of Maui's magic.

Wind and the crash of surf on the rocks echoed in my ears. photo by G. Wilson

Among the many highlights of this trip was a show put on for senior citizens to raise funds for some charity. The stars were Mickey Rooney and Donald O'Conner. Both were at the top of their game and left us laughing and applauding throughout a wildly wonderful afternoon. Mickey commented that he had been married many times and paid a great deal of alimony. He asked do you know what alimony is like? "It's like putting gas in another guy's tank." Donald is now dead but old Mickey is still alive and kicking.

Mickey Rooney and Donald OConner

Donald and Mickey Performing photo by G. Wilson

Mama's Restaurant - a great place to eat amid some of the most beautiful scenery imaginable.

Bashful Flower Girl photo by B. Wilson

Aloha - A Floral Finale to Maui and Oahu, Hawaii's Beautiful Islands photo by G. Wilson

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