Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
was erected by Kamehameha I around 1800 so he could keep watch on arriving ships.
Despite the name, this ʻpalace' was a simple two-story structure built by a pair of ex-con-
victs from Botany Bay. All that remains is the excavated foundation, which can be found
behind the library.
From the foundation, walk to the northern shoreline and look down. There lies the
lieved emitted healing powers to those who sat upon it. It sits just above the water's sur-
face, the middle of three lava stones. In the 14th and 15th centuries royal women sat here
while giving birth to the next generation of chiefs and royalty.
About 100ft to the south is the
Lahaina Lighthouse
, the site of the first lighthouse in
the Pacific. It was commissioned in 1840 to aid whaling ships pulling into the harbor.
The current structure dates from 1916.
Hale Kahiko
CULTURAL PARK
(Lahaina Center, 900 Front St; 9am-6pm)
They paved paradise and put up a park-
ing lot at Lahaina Center Mall. Fortunately, a patch of earth was reserved for this authen-
tic replication of thatched
hale
(houses) found in ancient, pre-Western Hawaiian villages.
The three houses - each with a different function - were hand-constructed true to the
period using ohia-wood posts, native
pili
grass and coconut-fiber lashings.
The grounds are planted in native plants that Hawaiians relied upon for food and medi-
cine. Near the entrance, look for copies of John Webber's drawings of native sites.
Webber was an official artist on Captain James Cook's third expedition to the Pacific,
which lasted from 1776 to 1780. The cultural park is located in the mall parking lot, near
Waineʻe St.
Lahaina Jodo Mission
MISSION
(
www.lahainajodomission.org
;
12 Ala Moana St; sunrise-sunset)
A 12ft-high bronze
Buddha sits serenely in the courtyard at this Buddhist mission and looks across the Pacif-
ic toward its Japanese homeland. Cast in Kyoto, the Buddha is the largest of its kind out-
side Japan and was installed here in 1968 to celebrate the centennial of Japanese immig-
ration to the Hawaii islands.
