Haunted Nu‘uanu Pali

There have been numerous deaths at this precipice that marks the peak of this pathway from Nu‘uanu to Windward Oahu -- from the last stand of Kalanikupule, to falling rocks, strong winds, horses losing their footing, and cars careening out of control, not to mention suicides... and murder.

Depending on who they’re speaking to, when people ask, “Why is the Pali haunted?” they might hear several different answers. And most of those answers might be true. This powerful, spiritual, haunting place has a long and violent history. It’s not just one thing that haunts this place, it’s many.

Kaleleake‘anae - The Battle of Nu‘uanu

Well known by Hawaii’s people, Kaleleake‘anae was the last stand of Oahu chief Kalanikupule and his 9000 warriors against Kamehameha and his invading army of 12,000 warriors from Hawaii.

Kalanikupule’s army, already weakened from the Battle of Aiea and a failed attempt to seize two well-armed merchant vessels, were outnumbered and outgunned. Anticipating Kamehameha’s attack, he stationed his chiefs at strategic points throughout the Nu‘uanu Valley.

The landing of Kamehameha’s forces along the beaches from Waikiki to Wai‘alae was unopposed by the commoners they encountered and Hawaii warriors took four days to gather food and scout out enemy positions. The first battle clashed near Punchbowl crater and moved upland from there.

The final spot, the Nu‘uanu Pali, was the end of the grueling 6-mile battle. The Oahu forces were defeated, either by jumping off the precipice or by hand-to-hand combat. It was desirable to be killed in battle... for then, your mana would be preserved for your bloodline rather than be captured and turned into a slave or be sacrificed and your bones be made into tools like fishhooks.

Many Oahu warriors were able to escape over into Kalihi and the Windward side, including Kalanikupule, but there were hundreds of soldiers who fought for hours and hours to the very end in order to help their ali‘i and their comrades escape.

The late Mayor John H Wilson who, in his youth, built the first road over the Pali, told about visiting the area on a surveying trip and finding more than 800 skulls, together with other human bones, littering the ground beneath the cliff. Many skulls were collected and sold to museums, while it is said that the rest were left where they were and the skeletons were buried by the dirt and rock that came from constructing the road.

Ghostly Warriors at the Pali Lookout

Many people claim to have seen warriors late at night at the Pali. Tall, muscular men dressed in malo, holding spears or leiomano, the shark tooth weapon. One popular story is about a couple who were seeing each other for five years. One day, to her confusion, the woman found out that the man she’d been seeing for the past five years was married and had children. In a fit of momentary insanity, the woman called her boyfriend and told him to meet her at the Pali. She told him that, if he didn’t show, she would go to his wife’s job and tell her everything. And then, she would go to his children’s school and tell them everything.

In a panic, the man agreed to meet. Driving as fast as he could, with little thought to the speed limits. He parked his car and ran toward the lookout to see his girlfriend standing on top of the wall. With the ambient light of Kaneohe silhouetting her, he could see that she had a gun to her own head.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, babes, don’t do this! Just come down and lets talk about this!”

“Now you wanna talk?” The woman is incredulous. “After five years? Now you wanna talk?

At that moment the two police officers drive up and approach the couple with their flashlights drawn. The man recognizes them as his friends and runs up to the officers, urging them to stop.

“We’re just having a disagreement,” he said, “I got it handled.”

The officers nod, and as the man turns to head back to where the woman is standing, he runs directly into someone and is knocked to the ground. When he looks up, he sees a giant Hawaiian warrior with his palm out, facing him as if to say... don’t go any further. In a blink, the warrior is gone and with the flashlights from the policemen still shining on her, he can now see that the woman had been holding a second gun tucked close to her side... facing directly at him. Her plan was to kill him first and then herself after.

While the man apologized profusely and kept her attention, the officers were able to get close enough to subdue her. In a heartbreaking scene, she was removed from the wall and handcuffed. The man had no idea who the Hawaiian warrior was and it seemed that no one else saw the warrior there that day. Perhaps that warrior was an ancestor. Whoever he was, he saved the man’s life.

Pele & Kamapua‘a

An even older story than Kaleleake‘anae is that of Pele, the goddess of the volcano, and the pig-god, Kamapua‘a. Pele’s family tells her that Kamapua‘a is completely wrong for her, but she does not listen and indulges in the relationship anyway. Soon, they were living together in Kilauea. Daily, Pele stokes the fires at home while Kamapua‘a goes about, doing whatever it is that pig-gods do. But soon, people from the nearby village approach the edge of the crater and call down to Pele.

“E Pele e, your husband is in a stream, making love to two women at the same time.”

“Tsa!” Pele exclaims, “Be gone!”

A few days later, people from another village approach Pele’s home and call out to her, “Pele, your husband is in the branches of a breadfruit tree, making love to three women at the same time!”

“Tsa!” Pele calls out, chasing them away.

It is not until Pele’s own sisters come down into her crater and begin to comb her hair and run her shoulders, and they say, “Auwe, Pele. We have seen your husband, in the ocean at Hapuna making love with five women all at once.”

Later that day, as Kamapua‘a is making his was home, he notices an unusual sight. A tidal wave coming down from the mountains, blocking the sun. For just a second, the pig-god is confused at this wave coming from inland, far from the ocean. Then he realizes that it’s not water coming towards him, it is a giant wave of lava.

“I have been discovered!” he says to himself.

The fires of Pele pursue the pig-god. No matter where he tries to run and hide, the flames are quick on his heels until he comes to a place called Kauku, just outside of Hilo. He lays flat on the ground and he begins to pray. The earth rises up and the roots from great trees rise up, holding back the lava. Then the Uakanilehua, the torrential Hilo rain comes, cooling the lava causing it to harden.

Pele appears to Kamapua‘a and says, “I suppose I cannot kill you, so what are we to do?”

Kamapua‘a says, “Let us make this agreement: With the exception of Moloka‘i where I was defeated in battle, the Ko‘olau side of every island will be mine. Lush, green, filled with rains. And the Kona side of every island will be yours; dry, arid, hot! None shall cross into the other’s territory.”

It is assumed that this particular tale is why you cannot bring the spiritual embodiment of Kamapua‘a from the Windward side to the Leeward side. This is why you cannot bring pork, the spiritual embodiment of the pig-god, Kamapua‘a over the Pali, into Pele’s territory.

Testing the Theory of Bringing Pork Over the Pali

On Tuesday, April 29th, 1947, at 12:45am, a group of five men and women entered the police headquarters and told the midnight watch, Police Lieutenant Philip Chong, that they had just seen an apparition at the Pali lookout.

The group said that they were discussing the supernatural and learned that on certain conditions, spooks could be seen on the Pali. They took it as a joke and decided to test the theory by going to the Pali at midnight and bringing with them some raw pork and fish. You know this was quite a long time ago as they stated that they parked their car facing the plaque dedicated to Kamehameha the first. Now, that area is only open to foot traffic.

Anyhow, they parked and waited and, just a short while later, a twenty year old woman alerted the group to a large figure of a man sitting on the side of the hill with his arms locked over his knees. Each time the car lights were turned on the man moved. He then reappeared in a different place when the lights were turned off.

Then, the ghost, they said, changed his shape to that of an animal. The night was dark and there was no moon, yet the group could see the figure plainly. Having their fill of the supernatural at that point, the group decided to leave. They tossed the pork and fish out of the car, and at that instant, the odor of death and decomposition permeated the air. Was this the manifestation of Kamapua‘a?

Falling Rocks & Landslides

Before Wilson and Whitehouse built the first driveable road over the Pali, which was completed in 1898, traveling this dangerous thoroughfare was a risky undertaking. The initial road, barely more than a footpath, was a treacherous one, especially in times of bad weather.

In November 1874, the Hawaiian Gazette describes a rainstorm that set in with an easterly wind, culminating in a hurricane. The storm uprooted trees, broke off branches, and destroyed fences but passed on without much more serious effects. However, in tearing down trees and soaking the soil, the storm weakened the walls of the Pali and succeeded in claiming the life of a man named Nahoe. This man, who had traveled constantly over the Pali as a messenger between a windward plantation and Honolulu was ascending the path on horseback with a pack-mule in tow when rocks began to slide overhead. He tried to hasten his animals ahead but his horse was struck and then almost immediately, a large stone struck Nahoe on the head. Another man, who’d witnessed the accident rushed forward to help him but Nahoe was already dead.

Building the Pali Road

The building of the road itself was just as perilous. In 1897, a man named Kilauea was killed by being thrown over the side of the Pali by the discharge of powder used in blasting the new road. The luna, who was responsible for blasting away the rock and dirt down along the side of the Pali, was Joe Puni. Kilauea was his second in charge.

While he was working with a team setting charges in deep, narrow holes along the cliff face, one of the charges failed to go off as expected. Kilauea went back to try to light the powder when the charge suddenly went off and Kilauea was thrown into the air and landed on a ledge 40 feet down the side. That Kilauea might have survived and that might have been the end of it if he hadn’t rolled off that ledge and fallen another 170 feet. When the crew found him, his skull was crushed in front and his mouth badly mangled. Bruises covered his body.

Kilauea left behind a wife and a one-month-old baby in what the newspaper called, “the most indigent circumstances, with nothing to eat and nothing to wear.” The wife was reportedly almost on the verge of desperation in her hovel on Kukui lane. Whitehouse and Wilson, the men who held the contract for the road over the Pali, left $50 with the woman to defray the funeral expenses of her husband. It was explained that they did this out of the goodness of their hearts because Kilauea was, in no way, under them. He was employed by Joe Puni, to whom a certain part of the work had been contracted.

Accidents, Suicides, and Murder

The official Pali Road opened in January 1898, to the excitement of the general public. Now it was wide enough to handle horse-drawn carriages, but travel was often still hazardous. The newspapers tell of numerous accounts of horse accidents, car crashes, suicides… and murder.

Night Marchers and Menehune at the Nu‘uanu Pali

Other Witnesses have claimed to see a procession of spirits marching in procession at the Pali and through the valley below. From the Pali, along the ridge, through Kaniakapupu to Puiwa, through Mauna‘ala, and down through Nu‘uanu valley walk the sleepless specters of Hawaii’s night marchers. When the phase of the moon and the elements of nature are just right, the warriors follow their path, escorting their ali‘i, marching in death, as they did in life.

The night marchers announce themselves by the sound of the pu, the hollow sound of air forced through a conch shell. Sometimes one will hear the rhythmic pounding of drums and the pulsing cadence of stomping feet. One may see a line of torches being held by the ghostly hand of ancient warriors, but not always... and the smell of sulfur may be present. When these signs appear, one would be well advised to make himself scarce as quickly as possible. For if you are caught as witness to the ghost army, your life will be forfeit.

If you are so unlucky as to let the warning signs pass unheeded, your best chance at escaping alive is to lay prostrate with your head down, never looking up until the procession has passed. If you know it, you can chant your mo‘oku‘auhau, your genealogy, in hopes that an ancestor is present in the procession and you will be claimed and not killed. Other sources say that one should strip naked and urinate, rubbing the liquid all over your body in hopes that the night marchers find you disgusting and not right in the head. For those considered feeble-minded were thought to be touched by the gods and were often left alone to fend for themselves.

The procession of Menehune is also said to make its way from Hawaii island, stopping at a place on each island as they make their way to Kauai. When they reach Oahu, it is said that the menehune climb to the peak at Pu‘ulanihuli before coming down the ridge to the Pali area where they have their meal before traveling on to their home in Wainiha on Manokalanipo, also known as Kauai. The procession travels in a single line in the dark of night, making their way to their resting spots before the sun comes up.

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