Friday fun in Hawaii

Due to our little injuries yesterday, we weren't up to more snorkeling today...which was too bad because the weather was just great today. Hardly any clouds in the sky and lots and lots of Hawaiian sunshine.

We headed down the coast to a National Historical Park called Pu'uhonua o Honaunau. It is an area that was both royal grounds for early Hawaiian royalty as well as a place of refuge. It is right on the water at the edge of a bay. There were a ton of people out snorkeling in the bay and by the looks of it they were seeing quite a few interesting things.

The park itself has a self-guided tour through the different areas. The first part was through the royal grounds. Not too much to see here but there was a huge lava stone wall that was built to separate the royalty from the commoners.

There was this really interesting tree that had many parts of the roots exposed. It was one of many interesting trees that we saw on the island.

Across the bay you come to the edge of the wall as well as a temple where the bones of royalty would be placed.
There are wooden statues called Ki'i that stand watch over the temple.

On the other side of the temple and the wall is the Pu'uhonua. This is considered sacred ground and no blood could be shed here. There wasn't much by way of buildings or other things to see instead it was just beautiful landscape on the edge of the bay. The water here was truly crystal clear. So clear that we stumbled across some sea turtles out having some fun in the water.