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The Traveler on the Big Island of Hawaii

April 6, 2006

Getting as Far Away as Possible – Or at Least Practical

That midmorning of my first full day here in the Big Island (Jayne’s fourth full day) finds us standing in the middle of a thick Hawaiian forest, a mile or so beyond the gate announcing the end of the park-maintained trail, just at is finally peters out and disappears into the forest undergrowth to the south, should be of little surprise.

“Well, I guess this is a far as we’ll go”, I say, remembering those few heady moments last year when we found ourselves lost and hanging onto the side of a mountain in Kauai.

We’d picked up this trail, first used in 1871 - still the time of the Great Kings of Hawaii - at Pu’uhonua Honaunau, which, as most of you know by now, roughly translates to the City of Refuge.

The City of Refuge is an ancient Hawaiian place where, after committing a kapu and running afoul of the King, a person could find refuge and salvation. What better place could there be? But refuge and salvation are not a given, they must be earned. You are being chased, and if caught before you reach the walls of the City of Pu’uhonua Honaunau, you find neither refuge nor salvation, but almost certainly death. It is a run for your life.

Every time I make it back to the Big Island and to the City of Refuge, I feel as if I’ve once again managed to outrun whatever it is that is chasing me, at least for a time.

Especially this time, having just spent a March in which 25 days were drenched in cold rain, and the six days that weren’t I can barely recall; possibly because I spent most of my time in a windowless – and cheerless, I would argue – courtroom.

What better way to start this trip than coming to a place called Refuge? Hike a trail that leads through fields of flowers, blooming in the sun only days after a biblical rain lasting 48 days. Butterflies dance among the purple blossoms, all little dots of color and movement in the mid-morning sun.

Out past the high rocky lava outcroppings, with their sheer vertical drop into the ocean hundreds of feet below, and past the ancient walls that once encompassed ancient Hawaiians sacred ritual.

Past the park boundary, through the gate, and on down the trail…

Through the brambles and over the stumps until we are standing in the middle of the forest, the trail all but indistinguishable in front of us.

Here. I feel as if I am, if only for a moment, not part of any human “race”; that I have won the race, and have earned my few moments of sanctuary.

Of course, humans are herd animals. Very few among us live entirely cut off from humanity, nor would want to. Humans provide valuable goods and services after all. And without a few very special people in our lives, we become desperately lonely – even the loners among us.

We’ve been coming to Hawaii for about 15 years now. We’ve done most everything from the activities list that we care to: The helicopter rides, the plane rides (once flying the plane myself around the entire island), the submarine rides (early on, give us a break, we didn’t know any better- and it was kinda fun), the canoe rides through the old irrigation ditches; Star gazing (I will do this again), whale watching, ranger-led walks, boat rides… We’ve done all that and more in our time visiting this island.

After all this, we’re starting to learn what the best thing about Hawaii is, especially for the likes of us, introverts at heart and really only seeking some peace and solitude.

The best thing about being in Hawaii is just that: Being in Hawaii. At a place called refuge, at the end of the trail as it disappears into the forest…

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