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Puʻuhonua o Hōnaunau National Historical Park preserves an ancient Hawaiian place of refuge. This was the second stop on our ‘Best of Kona’ excursion.

If you broke a law, any law, in old Hawaii, the penalty was death. The only way to escape that sentence was to flee to the sanctuary of a pu’uhonua. There, a priest would provide absolution to the law-breaker.

Just outside the walls of the sanctuary are the remains and reconstruction of temples, royal fishponds and a village where the chiefs lived for generations. The ancient nobility were buried here, but their remains were moved to the Royal Mausoleum of Hawaii in 1858.

We walked the path to…
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