We stopped at a Hawiian National Botanical Garden. It was really interesting. We got a little book that helped us know what we were looking at.

This is Bahli hi from South Pacific. A long time ago to men would climb up to the top and throw fire logs into the ocean to celebrate different occassions. There was a little boy who wanted to go throw one too but the elder fire throwers thought he was too young and wouldn't let him. One day when the throwers left to climb up, this little boy followed them. As night came on he stopped to rest. He heard someone calling for help so he went to find who it was. One of the children of the gods was out playing and had gotten stuck in under a rock. This boy moved the rock and released the child. Out of gratitude the child promised Nuou- the boy, that he'd make sure that night that his log would fly the farthest. When the elders saw that the boy followed them up they were furious and wanted to kill him. He talked them into letting him throw the log. He got his chance. He threw with all his might but the log immedatly sunk, but suddenly it rose back up and danced around and flew to the last cannoe where it landed in the kings hand. He was a hero! Everyone loved him- except the elder fire throwers. They hated him and decided to kill him. The took him up to throw the fire logs one night and on the way up they killed him. The went up and threw the logs and planned to throw the boys body off the cliff in the morning and tell everyone that was how he died. When they got to the boy's body, they saw the god's child who he had saved, protecting his body. The sun was just starting to come up. In his last breath before he turned to stone he cursed the elders that they would have achy painful legs and feet for the rest of their lives. The curse immediatly set in. The child was turned to stone and stands to this day protecting the boys body.

If you look close at this picture there is a lone stone pillare sticking up on the left center side. This is the child.

Here is another view of the mountain- with spots from the rain on my camera. This also shows the way the garden was layed out in terraces. Some of the terrace walls have been up for over 700 years. I wonder if the terrace walls in my front yard will stand that long!

We started laughing at this impressive tree. it was pretty stately!

The Garden provided umbrellas for their visitors. We didn't see them, until we were soaking wet and other people were carrying them. That would have been a great thing to grab. Oh well, I needed to fix my hair anyway!