Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 40, Number 9, 1 September 2023 — The 'Āina Pōhaku of Kekahawai'ole [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The 'Āina Pōhaku of Kekahawai'ole

MOKII 0 KEAWE

By Bobby Camara On the northwest coast of the Island of Hawai'i, in Kona 'Ākau (North Kona), pele that flowed from Maunaloa and Hualālai interfinger. Though casual passersby may see a barren landscape, some kama'āina understand the rich histories of plaee the aina pōhaku of Kekahawai'ole, the "waterless lands of Kekaha," offer. Kaha lands are dry hot places along the shore. In Kona 'Ākau, unrelenting sun, baking untold acres of smooth undulating pāhoehoe and rough clinkery 'aa, causes the phenomenon known in olelo Hawai'i as hulili, when the air above scorching bare flows shimmers or vibrates as a mirage. This adds to the discomfiture of travelers without water to drink or shade in whieh to rest. Mueh of that pele, up to a few thousand years old, is little-altered because of the arid climate. In 1801, when Hualālai erupted in the uplands of Hu'ehu'e, Pelehonuamea sent her pele ma kai, and filled the vast loko i'a Pā'aiea. That fishpond was a prized chiefly resource of Kamehameha I at Keāhole, and is now the site of the Ellison Onizuka Kona International Airport. Ihen in 1810, Kamehameha decreed the building (some say reconstruction) of a great loko i'a at Kīholo, perhaps to compensate for the loss of Pā'aiea. The pond, at the north end of the shore at Kīholo was completed by 1812. As William Ellis, who travelled down the coast by eanoe in 1823, described it: About four in the afternoon I landed at Kihoro, a straggling village, inhabited principally by fishermen. This village exhibits another monument of the genius of Tamehameha. A small bay, perhaps half a mile across, runs inland a considerable distance. From one side to the other of this bay, Tamehameha built a strong stone wall, six feet high in some places, and twenty feet wide, by whieh he had an excellent fishpond, not less than two miles in circumference.

Ihen, in late January 1859, a vent opened at 11,000 feet, high on the side of Maunaloa. On Jan. 31, 1859, a week after the eruption began, and after traveling 40 miles, an 'a'ā flow reached the Pacific. It had buried the hōlua (sledding course), loko i'a, and fishing village of Wainānāli'i, just north of Keawaiki. Hawaiian newspapers at the time describe the activity vividly. After the first in a series of flows reached the sea at Wainānāli'i, 'a'ā descended toward the south to Keawaiki, but did not damage any of the homes there. Instead, it flowed out to sea, and into the waters off Kanaupaka Point. The houses and plants, sugar eane, coconut, hala, and everything there disappeared, and nothing old ean be seen there now. The beauty of the plaee is gone. It was a good plaee for traveling canoes to rest or for overland traveling parties. That area has fine sand. It has all heeome naught and disappeared now...The shore and the land of Wainānāli'i were turned into a high, flat mound of clinker lava. Many fish were killed and washed ashore. (Ioane, Kailua, Feb. 5, 1859, translation by Puakea Nogelmeier) The pele continued, incessant and unpredictable. Pāhoehoe moved in relentless succession, first here, then there, sparing Keawaiki, but burying Wailea and Wailoa, neighboring villages to the south, toward Kīholo. Over the course of the next 11 months, flows of that same lua'i pele would resculpt the shores of adjacent ahupua'a Pu'uanahulu and Pu'uwa'awa'a. Laehou was created, as well as the familiar turquoise lagoon at Kīholo. The works of volcanic elemental Pelehonuamea would eontinue to astound and amaze. Kamehameha's loko i'a at Kīholo, as well as the one at Wainānāli'i were both filled with acres of pele. Runways ean still be discerned for hōlua courses at both Kīholo and Wainānāli'i, their termini at now-buried shorelines. Pāhoehoe ponded then inflated and tilted against walls of loko i'a. Stone-walled village structures at flow mar-

gins, as well as portions of anehialine pools survived the onslaught. Trails emerge from under the flows, their networks that traverse the coast then lead to cooler regions ma uka reconfigured and still in use, all of this evidence left by Native Hawaiians of their adaptability and creativity in the face of forbidding odds as they created livelihoods in Kekaha. Perhaps wanting to enahle more efRcient passage through these then-remote and arid coastal lands, Lota Kapuāiwa, Kamehameha V, funded construction, in late 1871 and early 1872, of an improved trail connecting Lāhuipua'a and Kīholo in a somewhat straight line. Traveling on that recently constructed Alanui Aupuni or Government Road that many today eall the "King's Trail," George Bowser, writing in 1880, commented wryiy; There is nothing to be seen all the way but lava; lava to right of you, lava to left of you, lava ahead of you, lava behind you, and lava beneath you; the road for a dozen miles or more is composed of nothing but clinkers of every size. Today, though thousands of acres of ubiquitous invasive alien fountaingrass, introduced to Kona 'Akau in about 1910, blanket the aina pōhaku, we imagine, in our mind's eye, the quotidian tasks that enabled past inhahitants to survive on those lands. We aloha them as we fondly recall our times wandering and wondering there, in Kekahawai'ole, our aina aloha. Go. Be outside. Pay attention. Noho i waho. A maliu. ■ Author's notes:Me ke alohapau 'ole a me ka mahalopiha iā Kihalani Springer, Puakea Nogelmeier, a me Kiope Raymond. "Lava" is the Italian wordfor molten rock. It is not used in this article, unlesspart ofa quote. Rather, we use the 'ōlelo Hawai'i "pele" theproduct of Pelehonuamea, elemental force ofvolcanism.

A kipukū, Kūluoo is likely o remnont of loko i'o Wainōnōli'i. Anehioline pools host 'ōpoe'ulo (red shrimp), and Schizothrix, o blue-green olgae forming oronge crusts. The 'o'ō Konikū flow of Mounoloo severol thousond yeors ogo is visible in the bockground. Foreground, o visitor is seoted on the 1859 flow. - Pkoto: Andrew Ridiard Hara

At Kiholo, o lorge tilted foce of 1859 pōhoehoe. The pele flowed mo koi, filling in the loko i'o Kiholo. At the woll it stopped. The flow infloted, rising up ond tilting neorly 90 degrees. - Plioto: Bobby Camara