Captain Cook and the Place of Refuge!

So, this is one of the beaches that we hung out at. It's called Anaeho'omalu Beach. Good luck pronouncing half of the words there!

It was a beautiful beach, and had amazing sunsets. You can see the pic on my profile in the upper left corner...it's the only pic of a sunset before my camera battery died. I did bring the charger, but for that night, I only got one. The weather was perfect and the beach was not crowded at all. The sand was a little coarse, but it was so much fun to lay around and get some sun!

The second full day on the island we headed to the Captain Cook monument and Kealakekua Bay. We rented a kayak and strapped it to the top of our Pontiac Grand Am!! It was interesting. We put the kayak in at the cement block and kayaked across this bay. It was the place where Captain Cook landed back in the 1700's. There's a gray indentation on the wall of this cliff where it's said that Captain Cook fired a cannon ball at the cliff. I said "why would anyone do that?" To which my husband said, "if I had a cannon I'd shoot it at the cliff, absolutely!" Ahhh, my husband! So, this is a beautiful pic of my backside kayaking!

This is the Captain Cook monument that was erected in the 1800's by his British countrymen. This small plot of land is actually British soil as it was deeded to them at some point in history. The travel books made sure we knew we didn't need our passport...seriously people.

Can you see the little people snorkeling? We snorkeled for a couple hours after we docked our kayak. We some some amazing coral, fish, and a reef shark. It was fairly large, but I was surprisingly unafraid. It was so neat. Jason thought he saw a lobster...but he couldn't find it again to show me.

If you look to the middle right, you can see some small bits of color. That's where we docked our boats. We had to pull it up on the lava...more difficult that you would think. The water was a bit choppy at the shore, but once you got in, it was amazing!

After kayaking back across the bay, which took about 30 minutes and made Jason nauseous...we headed to this really cool place called Pu'uhonua o Honaunau...or Place of Refuge. The way it is told, the Hawaiian people had strict laws called kapu. They remind me of Old Testament laws in that they were made to preserve the culture and livelihood. If anyone broke a kapu they must be killed or the people would risk the wrath of Pele the volcano god, or any of the other gods through earthquake or flood. So, the people of the village would pursue the lawbreaker until they caught and killed him or her. However, if the person could make it to a place of refuge, they could meet with the priests and perform rituals to purify themselves so they could return to their people free from their wrongdoing. There are some amazing parallels you can draw from this to our spiritual lives and the forgiveness and salvation found in the refuge of Christ! There were massive walls built around these places (there were more than one), and royal families would live within their boundary. This was a very cool place and I'm glad I went. The wall still exists and dates back to the 1500's. It's a hard place to explain, but you can go here if your interested in reading. As you can see...I love the history!

They had historically modeled huts that represent where the priests performed their rituals. When we came around the corner there was a ceremony being performed with people standing in mourning. We're not sure if it was a giving up of ashes or what, but it was very serene.

The terrain was unlike anything I have ever seen. It's just lava that pours into the ocean and waves would crash over our feet. It was an amazing view. If you look closely you can see that I still have my goggle line across my forehead!

In the distance is the wall that was built over 500 years ago. It's crazy to think that at some point, some man or woman was running for dear life just to cross over that wall to safety.

These turtles were great. There were so many! It is an actual sea turtle sanctuary and they were everywhere. I took more pictures of sea turtles than anything else. Jason had to cut me off. But look at them...they were so amazing!!

That concludes the excitement of this day. This night as we headed back we stopped that the previous beach and watched the sunset. That's when my battery died. It was a perfect day though. We even stopped in Kona at this great Coffee/deli/bakery for breakfast and a late lunch/early dinner. I should have taken a picture of the cinnamon rolls we had. They literally were the size of a lunch plate...and so gooey and good. And of course I can not say enough about the coffee in Hawaii. I didn't have a bad cup the entire time there. Some of the purest tastiest coffee is grown on the plantations in Hawaii. Jason and I had some fun talking about our future. How fun it would be to retire in Hawaii and open a coffee shop/bakery. I could make pies and other baked goods (cupcakes maybe??) and watch the sun set over the ocean every night. Just fun dreams, but our God most definitely made a beautiful world and we had so much fun exploring it!

No words...

~V~