Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Surfboards everywhere at the North Shore Surf and Cultural Museum.
PuuoMahukaHeiau
★
Go around sundown to feel the mana (sacred spirit) of this ancient
Hawaiian site. The largest sacrificial temple on Oahu, it's associated with the great kahuna
(priest) Kaopulupulu, who sought peace between Oahu and Kauai. The prescient Kaopu-
lupulu predicted that the island would be overrun by strangers from a distant land, and in
1794, three of Captain George Vancouver's men of the Daedalus were sacrificed here. In 1819,
the year before New England missionaries landed in Hawaii, King Kamehameha II ordered
all idols here to be destroyed.
A national historic landmark, the 18th-century temple, known as the “hill of escape,” sits
on a 5-acre, 300-foot bluff overlooking Waimea Bay and 25 miles of Oahu's wave-lashed North
Coast—all the way to Kaena Point, where the Waianae Range ends in a spirit leap to the other
world. The heiau (temple) appears as a huge rectangle of rocks twice as big as a football field
(170 ft. x 575 ft.), with an altar often covered by the flower and fruit offerings left by native
Hawaiians.
1 mile past Waimea Bay. Take Pupukea Rd. mauka (inland) off Kamehameha Hwy. at Foodland, and drive 7⁄10 miles up
a switchback road. Bus: 52, then walk up Pupukea Rd.
