The Kahanu Garden Is Maui’s Tropical Garden

If you are looking for a tropical garden on the island of Maui, then the garden of Kahanu, which is part of the national botanical garden, is for you. This garden has a lot of Polynesian plants that were brought to Hawaii over 1,800 years ago. The Kahanu Gardens play a big part in the lives of the Hawaiian natives and in the history of Maui due to the plants within the garden and the Heiau. Pi’ilanihale, which means house of Pi’ilani, is a family of chiefs. This tropical botanical garden is the most beautiful garden that Hawaii has to offer.

The Kahanu Botanical Gardens
The Kahanu Botanical Gardens, which is located on the island of Maui, is considered to be on sacred ground and was named after King Kahanu, who had originally owned the land in the 1800’s. This botanical garden is located on the Hana coast, which is near the famous Hana Highway. To the west is Nahiku road that is located on the road to Hana, which you should consider visiting both after your visit to the Kahanu Gardens. The land was mostly used as a place for cattle and to grow the sugar canes, but the descendants of Chief Kahanu gave 61 acres to start the garden in 1974.

The clearing of the land started in 1972 by the original owners and thus some of the first plants were planted. What first started out as 61 acres is now 464 acres of land, which is the largest hala forest in the Hawaiian Islands. There are many native and Polynesian plants like banana, taro, sweet potato and of course coconut trees. This garden also has the biggest variety of breadfruits in the whole entire world with approximately 120 different kinds. Many of these plants in this garden were important for providing food for the Polynesians and for their spirituality.

They do have tours that are on a first come, first serve basis but you can get guided tours that you can pay for in advance so that you can avoid waiting around until there is an opening or worry about not doing the tour at all because the tour was too full. When you visit the gardens you will be given a very informative pamphlet which will explain a good part about the garden and the plants in it.
The tours are self guided on the weekdays which opens at 10am and closes at 2pm with a cost of $10 for adults and kids get in free. The guided tours take place only on Saturdays from 10am to 12pm and have a cost of $25 for the guided tour on Saturday, also with children getting in free. Allow yourself the opportunity to take in the beauty and natural surroundings. You won’t regret it.

The Pi’ilanihale Heiau Temple

The construction of the Pi’ilanihale Heiau Temple was believed to have started in the thirteenth century, with most of the construction being finished during the sixteenth century, which at that time is when the Pi’ilani family was ruling the islands and therefore that is why it was named the Pi’ilanihale Heiau.

The temple itself is very impressive and is the largest in Hawaii, and quite possibly in the Polynesian area. It is made of many rocks stacked on top of one another and has a measurement, at the top of the platform, at 450’ x 320’. Since the Heiau is very sacred to the people of Hawaii, you will need to be very respectful and never attempt to climb on it, including the stepping on the smaller rocks that surround it, as some of them are gravesites.

This large temple was almost forgotten as it was hidden within the jungle until the 1960’s when a group of archaeologists found it on an expedition. They cleared all the over growth of plant life away from it and then it was declared a national historic landmark.

It was wondered how it could have been forgotten, thus was told the story that the Hawaiian people would not talk about the temple or let their children go near it because there was a sibling rivalry between the two brothers from the family of Pi’ilanihale. Eventually one of the sons of King Pi’ilani killed his brother and it was made into law to never talk about his brother again or about the house in which he lived in which happened to be the temple.

In the event, you visit these great sites, be sure to take home its beauty with plenty of photographs or better yet, you can hire a professional photographer to capture your vacation moments for you.

Maui Photographer- Nicole Sanchez