By Bob Krauss
Advertiser Columnist

Today we will take a spin from Kaimuki around Makapu'u Point to Waimanalo and back to Honolulu over Nu'uanu Pali. You'll think you are on a strange island because this trip was taken in 1906. See how many places along the way have changed.

J.W. Girvin and a friend started on foot "leaving the car line at Kaimuki. We tramped down through Waialae admiring the beautiful glades beneath the kiawe trees where the cattle were feeding. Then along through Wailupe where there had been a small sugar mill which failed."

In Niu Valley, Charles Lucas invited them to stop at his "pleasant summer resort where we were tendered hospitality." The hikers tramped on through Kuli'ou'ou, Mr. Drier's land, and beyond to the great fishpond of Maunalua which they skirted "following the tortuous banks of the great lake until we arrived at Milo Valley (Hawai'i Kai).

"Here we rambled through the valley endeavoring to note from the partition walls and paved house sites what the number of early inhabitants had been. As the soil is the best, barring lack of water, we concluded that sweet potatoes and squash had been produced in abundance.

"They had evidently controlled the large fish pond which probably bore as large or larger a crop of fish in those days as it does at present. Here is a forest of the familiar and dearly beloved milo trees with a few wiliwili trees interspersed.

"Having picked up a few relics of past days we continued our tramp over the neck of land back of Koko Head. ... From here we debouched to the sea and tumbled into one of the estuaries for a bath."

As they hiked along the shore, they came upon a stone-paved trail over Makapu'u Pali. However, this "King's Highway" had been scattered by the hooves of horses and overgrown with kiawe. "As no repairs have been made on this pali road for many a year, the travel having been diverted by the improvement to Nuuanu Pali, the descent is something terrible." Girvin concluded that there would never be a macadamized road built here.

Also at Makapu'u, the hikers came upon the "Hichcock Fort" built by government troops in 1895 during the Wilcox Rebellion to stop the rebels from escaping around Makapu'u.

The tourists came to Waimanalo, "one of the grandest sites nature has to offer. I consider Waimanalo Village the most picturesque of any on the Islands, and I have visited every part. From its background of verdant precipices, its green fields and hills of different colors, it presents a most beautiful view."

It was dark by the time the travelers reached the Pali above Honolulu and started down Nu'uanu Valley. "At Luakaha the rain descended in floods and we were glad to reach the street cars. ... We do not advise any one to follow our ramble, but to be content with a description of our thirty-five mile walk."

Reach Bob Krauss at 525-8073.