Pili Grass Harvest

This last Sunday Bill and I had an opportunity of a lifetime, we got to drive through trails that only a handful of people had been in the past 100 years or so. A small group of people from Ohana Trails (our 4x4 ohana) went up into the hills of the North Shore to sacred lands to gather pili grass for an authentic Hawaiian hut that they are building at the YMCA camp. Long time ago they would hike up the mountains to harvest the grass but now you need 4x4 capability to get there. As we traveled there our guide/builder, Kawika, chanted at each gate before he unlock and opened it to ask for permission from the elders/gods to proceed farther onto the land and then when we got to the top where we were to gather the grass he then chanted for permission to harvest the grass. We harvested the grass for a few hours and then we went back and had some lunch at Killer Tacos, which are very killer (yummy). Tomorrow (Thursday), we are going to see the progress that they have made on building the hut and then on the 14th we are going back up to gather more pili for them to finish the hut. Here are some pictures of the way up and while we were up there. The grass around the parked Jeeps is what we harvested. Don't have any pictures of while we were harvesting because we forgot our camera so we had to rely on other peoples pics. We will take some pic on Thursday of the hut being built and on the 14th when we go back up.

Isn't the view beautiful?