Mauna Kea Oral History Appendix - Office of Mauna Kea Management

KM: You know, it’s very interesting what you’re saying, because in the old Hawaiian traditions
that we’ve seen…you know before had Hawaiian language newspapers…
JH: Uh-hmm.
KM: And in the mo‘olelo, their traditions, they write about that being, “Very special water.”
JH: Yes, that water, it still is special, because you can get it and put it in a glass and you
leave it all day. You don’t look inside and see any brown or yellow or green. There’s no
sign of nothing, it’s just plain, just like distilled water you buy from the store.
KM: Amazing! And you had to walk feet go up the trail
JH: Yes, they have a trail go across.
KM: Pipeline.
JH: We used to go drive car over to the base of the hill [Pu‘u Pöhakuloa – behind area of
Mauna Kea State Park]. But then you got to walk up.
KM: Wow! Hard walk must be, right!
JH: Hoo, that’s a twelve hour day [chuckling].
KM: For real
JH: Yes.
KM: About how long do you think, to get up to the spring, it took you
JH: Oh, I’d say about two, three hours.
KM: Three hours or something
JH: Yes.
KM: Wow!
JH: ‘Cause they used to go up and sideways and back this way. You didn’t walk straight up.
You never go up straight.
KM: Yes. And the gulch itself, Pöhakuloa Gulch, is very steep, I think.
JH: Yes, steep, cliffs along the side of it.
KM: Yes.
JH: From on top, the snow water melts, comes down.
KM: Yes.
Traveled to the adze quarries and learned of practices from elder Hawaiians:
JH: But we didn’t explore too much, because we weren’t interested. The only thing that we
used to go look at was where they made the flint.
KM: Flint, the adze, the chisels
JH: Yes. They had plenty over there. We used to go over there. but Alex said, “No fool
around with nothing.”
KM: You did go up to the adze quarry
JH: Yes.
KM: Did you ever hear about how they made adzes
JH:
Alex…we used to ask him and old man AhFong, they’d tell us, as they understood it. And
I used to ask the old man at Kawaihae, Lono.
Mauna Kea– “Ka Piko Kaulana o ka ‘Äina”
Kumu Pono Associates LLC
A Collection of Oral History Interviews (HiMK67-050606) A:450