Kepaniwai Park & Heritage Gardens

Kepaniwai Park & Heritage Gardens Review

Picnic facilities and ethnic displays dot the landscape of this county park, a memorial to Maui's cultural roots. Among the displays are an early-Hawaiian hale (house), a New England-style saltbox, a Portuguese-style villa with gardens, and dwellings from such other cultures as China and the Philippines. Next door, the Hawaii Nature Center has excellent interactive exhibits and hikes easy enough for children.

The peacefulness here belies the history of the area. During his quest for domination, King Kamehameha the Great brought his troops from the Island of Hawaii to the Valley Isle in 1790 and waged a successful and bloody battle against the son of Maui's chief, Kahekili, near Kepaniwai Park. An earlier battle at the site had pitted Kahekili himself against an older Hawai'i Island chief, Kalaniopuu. Kahekili prevailed, but the carnage was so great that the nearby stream became known as Wailuku (water of destruction), and the place where fallen warriors choked the stream's flow was called Kepaniwai (damming of the waters).