Legends of Hawaii

By Ty Sawyer

updated 3:13 p.m. ET Oct. 13, 2008

Myths and fables, stories of the sea and a parade of legends, gods, demigods, goddesses, spirits and other mythical beings, places and tales are what define Kona. That dense, cultural texture reflects the wild complexity of this, the youngest of the Hawaiian Islands. People use legends to understand their world. And when you live on an active volcano, understanding is absolutely essential. 

All things come from the sea
Only 13 climatic zones exist in the entire world, and 11 of them can be found on the Big Island of Hawaii, simply called Kona. The island began its life eons ago at the bottom of the sea, where only marine creatures witnessed its slow emergence. Now cloaked in snow for much of the year, at one time the Mauna Kea volcano came struggling to the surface as lava pushed upward. The only possible air-breathing witness to the event would have been a passing honu (green turtle). Ancient and intrinsically tied to Kona, these honu roamed the seas when Kona first rose above the waves in a fit of volcanic ferocity.

The reefscape left by this volcanic whimsy is twisted, arched and full of caverns, pinnacles and lava tubes. Hard corals have transformed the shapes into islands of life. And in the isolation, the marine animals evolved uniquely, with some 25 percent of everything you’ll see known only in these waters.

To see as much as possible of the volcanic bones that make up the reefscape off the Big Island, my buddy and I head to the PADI  Dive Resort Kona Village Resort in the heart of the Kohala Coast, and look up Jimmy Kilbride. Jimmy knows the area intimately, so when he tells us we’re venturing out by Diver Propulsion Vehicle, we know we’ll have a book’s worth of experiences.

We don’t dive just one site; we dive undersea swaths by this method. At the first site, Kua Bay, we jump in, settle on the black-sand seafloor, put the scooters between our legs and off we go. Jimmy knows there are as many small critters as big ones that we should see off Kohala, so we buzz around the volcanic substrate, under arches, stopping at swim-throughs and caverns with sleeping whitetip reef sharks. We circle around coral heads and stop to visit several of Jimmy’s favorite critters — eels surrounded by sweepers, large frogfish and reef octopi. We glide over acres of pristine hard corals presided over by clouds of surgeonfish, snapper, raccoon butterflyfish and squirrelfish.

As we buzz along the reef, we come across several green sea turtles, and flying in formation with them on the scooters makes the encounters last longer than normal. When several spotted eagle rays pass, we spin, twirl and cross over big chunks of the reef to follow them. They hardly look as if they’re trying, while our scooters strain to keep up. Then, with a slight flip of their fin tips, they vanish into the underwater mist.

Back at Kona Village Resort, we settle into our traditionally built hale or house. Each evening, honu come here to Kahuwai Bay to pull themselves ashore and rest on the crescent of black sand beach. The Kona Village was built on the site of an ancient Hawaiian fishing village, and on the premises you can see more than 400 petroglyphs. The entire Kohala Coast is built as much on legends and sacred sites as it is on lava rocks.

Ty Sawyer Underwater view of a volcanic arch.

There’s a warm power here, one that deepens further into my bones with each visit. It’s like the land, the lava, the ocean and the hidden spirits have let me into their world. It’s this transformation and the tranquility of the resort that bring people back year after year. You’ll be caressed by oceanic breezes born thousands of miles away and be lulled into reflection by the waves. This trip, I do something that I haven’t done in quite a while. I settle into a chair on the shore and read a book in the sun.

That night, after the Kona Village Luau, I watch as manta rays somersault beneath Jimmy’s dive boat, which he’s rigged with lights aimed toward the water. I could snorkel out to join them, but this is their revelry. So I’m content to just sit on the sand beneath a darkened sky and wonder what secret lives are being played out in the lightless blue realm lapping at my feet.

The favored place
After the Kohala Coast, we make our way to Kailua-Kona and the Keauhou Beach Resort. The resort has one of the largest heiau, or ancient temples, on the island, built for King Kalakaua. And its adjacent Kahalu’u Bay fills with green sea turtles each evening. Kailua-Kona was the favored place for kings to live in ancient times because of its weather and plentitude of fresh water. So, when you walk the grounds, you walk the paths of kings. You’ll be lulled by the same aroma of the plumeria and shaded by the same kinds of trees — kukui and palm.

Kona listings Big Island Visitors Bureau Dive centers Big Island Divers Bottom Time Hawaii Breeze Hawaii Diving Jack’s Diving Locker Kona Honu Divers Dive resorts/hotels Kona Village Resort Keauhou Beach Resort SunQuest Vacations Live-aboards Kona Aggressor II

The Keauhou Beach Resort is also the only dive-centric resort on the island, so it’s not only for royalty — it’s for explorers as well. There’s an on-site PADI Five-Star IDC, Bottom Time Hawaii, which frequently ventures to the more-remote southern sites, such as Au Au Crater, Driftwood, Long Lava Tube and Amphitheater. I’m here because of the legendary diving, and I make a yearly pilgrimage to these waters.

But first, to begin to comprehend the complexity of Kona, you’ll need to take to the air, which Jeff Kirschner at Bottom Time Hawaii arranges for me.

From the moment we lift off by helicopter, the island takes on a different pulse. We fly over miles of desolate fields of black lava along the Kohala Coast — a harsh, dry landscape where only the heartiest of grasses find purchase. Here, dark lava meets the sea and gets wrapped in blue. At the edges, along black sand beaches, there’s a green line of hardy palm trees. In the water, as we navigate up the coast, we see honu, mantas, dolphins and mano (sharks) — all visible from our lofty perch, all moving among the submerged volcanic reefs, arches, caverns and lava tubes.

We turn south toward the town of Kailua-Kona. From above, a gathering mist shows us which way the wind blows, where the demigod of the rain clouds, Kuula, resides. The upper slopes turn a vivid, almost impossible green with the moisture, and clouds wrap like a silken cloak over the hills. This landscape you taste — the volcanic soil nurtures Kona coffee.

Slide show   A Mermaid’s Playground Presented by Sport Diver Magazine. more photos

Above the cloud forest, the land continues upward to 13,796 feet, where the snow goddess Poliahu drapes the peak of Mauna Kea in white. We follow the coastline, though, past the Place of Refuge, a sacred bay that promised life and a fresh start to ancient Hawaiian lawbreakers. Over the sea-turtle haven and freshwater springs of Punalu’u — which means “diving spring” — there is a black sand beach where the goddess Kauila watches over children playing in the water. The sea looks calm, like blue glass. But when we arrive at Volcanoes National Park, the island is visibly alive, heaving and gasping with life.

Lava pours into the sea, and a thrilling white column of gas climbs skyward from the point where the two meet. The trade winds grab the plume and drag it down the coastline. By the time it reaches Kailua-Kona, where we’ve just come from, it will have spread from summit to sea in a hazy “vog,” or volcanic fog, that settles over the land when the house of Pele rumbles.

From above, the goddess Pele’s plume of acidic gas looks almost delicate, belying the raw, primal violence at the spot where molten rock and the Pacific clash. Here on Kona, the earth constantly reminds us that the land lives, breathes and evolves. As we watch, inch by inch the Big Island grows bigger still, with every brawl of hissing, popping and exploding sea-wetted lava.

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