Honolulu, Oahu
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Honolulu is a beautiful and colourful city; in Hawaiian its name means "Sheltered Bay". It was likely settled by the early Hawaiians as early as the 12th century AD. Today it extends for about 10 miles along the south eastern shore of the Island of Oahu and for about 4 miles inland into the foothills of the Koolau Mountains. It is a vital cross roads for trans-pacific shipping and air routes. The city has a population of some 400,000 and remains the only large city in the islands and its commercial, political and cultural centre. The city-county, area is 597 square miles, which includes all of the island of Oahu plus 1,300 miles of the Pacific Islands National Wildlife Refuge. In December 1941 the city and the adjacent Pearl Harbor naval-military area was subjected to a Japanese aerial bombardment. Honolulu is the educational centre of the state and is the site of the University of Hawaii in Manoa Valley. Founded in 1907, its renowned East-West Centre, was established in 1960 for technical and cultural exchange between the peoples of Asia, the Pacific and the United States. The Kamehameha Schools were founded in Honolulu in 1887 specifically for children of Hawaiian descent. Captain William Brown, from England, became its first
western visitor when he navigated his frigate Butterworth through the
reef into the bay in 1793; King Kamehameha I moved his royal court from
nearby Waikiki to Honolulu in 1809 as the harbour was fast becoming
an important centre of trade. The Russians arrived in 1816, followed
again by the British in 1843 and then by the French in 1849. Finally
in 1850 King Kamehameha III declared it a city and the capital of the
islands.
Chinatown is located north of downtown Honolulu. Walking through Chinatown you could easily believe that you were in Asia, the original inhabitants had been sugar plantation workers who first moved to this area in the 1860's. Today its narrow, colourful streets bustle with activity and are filled with art, antique shops, restaurants, temples, shrines, tattoo parlours and herbalists. For all its vivacity and colour it's best not to be walking around after dark. Eating Out in Honolulu is a delightful experience due to the multi-ethnic nature of its population and to the tremendous variety of fresh seafood. Explore a little, apart from the multitude of restaurants in fabulous tropical and ocean side settings, meals can also be obtained at very reasonable prices. Lifestyle, Parks, The Outdoors. No article on Hawaii would be complete without illustrating a picture of Honolulu and its environs as a place in which you can really enjoy being in the open air. Where its people, meet, live and enjoy life in its many parks, beaches and gardens, thanks to its near perfect climate, which, tempered by fresh ocean trade winds, ensures it's never too hot or too cold. Plants and flowering trees are always in bloom and surrounding the city are its green mountains and the blue Pacific Ocean. Sunrise and sunset are beautiful times of the day and should be enjoyed for a quiet walk along a beach, by the canal, up to Diamond Head or in one of the lovely parks. At sunset, as the sun touches the ocean, if your lucky you, might see the "green flash". I've seen it but you have to watch a lot of sunsets. Charles Reed Bishop founded the Bishop Museum in 1889 in honour of his late wife, Princess Bernice Pauahi Bishop, the last descendant of the royal Kamehameha family.The Museum was originally established to house the large collection of Hawaiian artefacts and royal family heirlooms of the Princess, and has since expanded to include over 2 million artefacts, documents and photographs about Hawaii and other Pacific island cultures. Mr. Bishop built the magnificent Polynesian and Hawaiian Hall you now see on the grounds of the original Kamehameha Schools for Boys. This school was established by Princess Pauahi to educate children of Hawaii. The Museum was meant to augment that education and instil a greater pride in their Hawaiian heritage. In the 1960's the school was relocated to a new campus on the hillside above, leaving room for the Museum to expand on the original site. The only school building that remains is Bishop Hall. All of the other buildings were built as part of the Museum. Today Bishop Museum is the premier natural and cultural history institution in the Pacific and is recognized throughout the world for its cultural collections, research projects, consulting services and public educational programmes. It also has one of the largest natural history specimen collections in the world.As the largest museum in the state Bishop Museum hosts over 500,000 visitors each year who experience over 2,000 years of history and cultural heritage; from early Polynesian migration and settlement to space exploration. The focus of Honolulu's civic centre is the Iolani Palace it is now a museum but was the official residence of King Kalakaua and his successor Queen Lili'uokalani, the last monarchs of Hawaii. It was completed in 1882 and is the only royal palace in the United States. In 1893, the monarchy came to an end when Queen Lili'uokalani was forced from her throne by a group of American businessmen. The Queen, in order to avoid blood shed, was forced to surrender. In a further humiliating move she was subsequently tried for treason and imprisoned in the palace. The palace became the Capitol first for the Republic, then for the Territory, after it was annexed by the United States and later for the State of Hawaii. The palace was restored to its former glory in 1969. The palace grounds include: the Coronation Pavilion, where the Royal Hawaiian Band plays on Friday's at 12:15: the Iolani Barracks and the Royal Tomb, which until 1865 housed the remains of King Kamehameha II and Queen Kamamalu who both died of measles in England. The popular TV series Hawaii 50 used opening and closing shots of the palace to depict their fictional police head quarters. Completed in 1841 and constructed mainly of thousands of slabs of coral, the Kawaiahao Church is surrounded by the early Mission Houses, built in the 1820's from lumber brought from Boston around Cape Horn by the first missionaries. |
