EDDIE WOULD GO.

Yesterday January 4, 2008 the Hillyer Goes Hawaiian group
set out on the O'ahu Island tour. The day began in downtown
Honolulu where we saw sites such as 'Iolani Palace (the only
royal palace in the United States), Kawaiha'o Church,
Washington Place, and St. Andrews Cathedral. We continued
the tour heading towards the Pali lookout but there was a
problem with the locks on the gate and we were not able to
proceed up. Our next stop was the Byodo-in Temple. We left
the Byodo-in Temple and proceeded towards the Kahana Valley
fishpond. There Aunt Mae told us Hawaiian legends and talked
about the role of fishponds, lo'i, and taro in Hawaiian
culture. Aunt Mae said something that really stood out to us
all, when Hawaiian's living by the water had fish they would
give some fish to those living in the mountains, in the same
way when those living in the mountains had taro they would
give it to the Hawaiian's by the water. This wasn't a
trading system, they just shared whenever they could. After
the fishpond we headed to Waimea Bay. This is where we
learned the story of Eddie Aikau; Eddie was a Hawaiian
surfer, lifeguard, waterman, and legend. Eddie was a
lifeguard in Waimea Bay, when Eddie was on duty notone
person died in the water. Eddie would use his strength,
knowledge and skill to rescue those who found themselves in
the trouble no matter how dangerous the situation. Eddie
died when the Hoklulea, a double hulled ocean going canoe
was capsized. The 16-member crew was thrown overboard, Eddie
got on his ten foot surf board figuring that it would take
him five hours to reach land and help for his crew. Eddie
was never seen again. Every year Quicksilver sponsors a
surfing invitational the "Quicksilver in Memory of Eddie
Aikau" at Waimea Bay, this invitational takes place sometime
between November and January when the waves reach over 20ft
in height. This year they are still waiting for the waves
and hopefully it was happen when we are in Hawai'i. Our tour
ended with stops at the Dole Plantation, and the Birthing
Stones.