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Thursday, July 17, 2003 |
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Unlike the 16th, we did not get a late start on Thursday. We had a 743 foot mountain to climb.
We headed out to Diamond Head State Park under the direction of Mike, our guide. Mike informed us that he took up hiking after moving to Hawaii to care for his grandmother. Like all of the guides that we have encountered so far, Mike was very informative.
He told us, for example, that the tree at the entrance to Diamond Head was the one used in Walt Disney's set construction of -The Swiss Family Robinson- movie. He told us that many of the birds that we encounter while walking around are not native to Hawaii, as diseases carried by mosquitoes killed off all of the local birds in the 1800's. Hawaii therefore had to import birds from places such as South America. He also told us that there are no snakes in Hawaii, though they sometimes do crawl into airplane vents and land on the islands. It turns out that the Hawaiian customs service has dogs trained to sniff out snakes as well as drugs, so the serpents don't end up getting very far.
Mike also told us about Hawaii's most famous biological mistake. It seems that some species of rats are strong enough to swim onto the islands, making them "endemic" (animals or plants that were not imported but that found their way here themselves). These rats began eating the sugar cane grown by Hawaiian farmers and the eggs of Hawaii's birds. To combat this problem, the farmers began importing mongoose. This was a mistake. The rats turned out to be nocturnal creatures, active at night. The mongoose were diurnal, awake during the day. They never saw each other and the farmers ended up with nothing solved. The mongoose. ate the bird eggs too.
We also got a lesson in volcanoes - there are two types. A cone volcano is what most people think of when they hear the term volcano. The cone volcano spews lava out the top. A shield volcano has slits in it's sides, and the lava leaks out. Each creates a different formation.
Diamond Head is so named because the coral and limestone compressed and gave the area a shine. Early explorers thought that they had found diamonds, and named the region "Diamond Head" or "Diamond Point". Early Hawaiians used the caves at the top of the mountain to bury the bones of their chiefs and kings in order to prevent enemies from stealing the bones, and thus, stealing the chief's power.
We did not climb into these caves, but we did climb to the top. The path was rocky and we saw such interesting sights as a cactus that gives off the smell of rotting meat. Our route took us through a hollowed out tunnel in which we had to use flashlights to see the path in front of us and up 99 steep stairs (no, we didn't count them, we took Mike's word on the number).
At the top, we could see the ocean below us on one side and the city stretched out on the other. It is a neat climb, for those with the stamina for it, and our group was amazed at the number of small children marching along with their parents. Collectively, we decided that the father who made the hike with a baby in a huge backpack deserved a medal.
Thursday evening brought a slower pace to our adventure. We walked up to the Royal Hawaiian Hotel for a luau. (Many places in Honolulu are named "Royal" or "King" or "Queen" because Hawaii was a monarchy before becoming a territory and later a state.) The Royal Hawaiian Hotel opened in 1927 with a $10 a plate dinner. It is often known as "The Pink Palace" because of its bright hue and, indeed, its first guests were members of the deposed monarchy.
At the luau, we met sisters Sandy and Susie from California. They, like us, were on vacation and we were able to share "tourist places" stories. Sandy and Ken tried the octopus, but Stephanie stuck with the roasted pork. Like the now ever present leis, roasted pork was once reserved for royalty or very special guests. Depending on the size of the pig, the roasting can take anywhere from eight to twenty hours in an underground steam oven. It turned out to be delicious, as did the pina coladas, pineapple chunks and coconut cake. Ken also tried some "Hawaiian spinach" wrapped and cooked in tea leaves. These tea leaves also serve as material on the hula dancers "grass skirts".
The hula turned out to be interactive. In addition to the luau cast, audience members were invited to come up on stage and dance. For the demonstrations of traditional Polynesian dancing, however, the cast danced alone. We saw many different types of dancing. The men, for example, performed a Samoan "slap dance" which involved, you guessed it, slapping various parts of their bodies at a rapid pace.
The luau also gave us an opportunity to hear some traditional music. The band had players on guitar, drums and ukulele. There was a renowned falsetto singer, schooled in a tradition that began when early Hawaiians first heard the missionary women singing hymns and determined to imitate the sound and add it to their non-melodic chants. We also heard our host sing a "Hawaiian Wedding Song" duet with Tiffany, the evening's soloist.
By far the most dangerous display, however, was the fire knife dancing done toward the end of the luau. The dancer literally twirled flaming knives around his back, under his legs and over his head. He tossed the knives in the air and caught them, played with them like batons and appeared to set himself on fire on a couple of occasions. It was quite impressive, and a little scary.
One thing we found quite interesting was that the host lead us in a traditional Hawaiian prayer that he sang, as well as a spoken English prayer.
We never know what we might see on this adventure.