Kamehameha Lei Draping

On June 8, 2012 I got to see ANOTHER thing that I've always wanted to see, but never was on-top of it enough to realize when it was happening.  I have always wanted to see the lei draping of the King Kamehameha statue.  This year I was...well I don't know if I'll go with "lucky" (you'll see why later), but I was able to see it.

The festivities for Kamehameha Day (June 11th) started on June 8th at 3:30 p.m. when the King Kamehameha I statue, on King Street and across from Iolani Palace in downtown Honolulu’s historic Capitol District, received its annual lei-draping. Volunteers spent over 24 hours stringing fresh 25-foot flower and maile lei for the statue.

There are actually two Kamehameha statues.  In 1880 the Hawaiian legislature commissioned the statue in honor of the 100 year anniversary of Captain Cook landing in Hawaii.  Unfortunately the original sank in transit from France where it was cast.  With the insurance money, another statue was cast.  Unbeknownst to Hawaii legislature the original statue was recovered and now the legislators were faced with two identical statues.  The original was installed in Kohala on the Big Island (My island! I still haven't seen it) and the second cast was installed in front of Ali'iolani Hale.  Ali'iolani Hale is now home to Hawaii's State Supreme Court.

KAMEHAMEHA STATUE IN FRONT OF ALI'IOLANI PALACE

KAMEHAMEHA STATUES PRE-DRAPING

When I got there the Royal Hawaiian Band was performing.  They have been around since 1836 when they were founded by Kamehameha III.

ROYAL HAWAIIAN BAND

HULA DANCER DANCES WITH THE ROYAL HAWAIIAN BAND

Then kumu hula Manu Boyd of Halau o ke `A`ali`i Ku Makani (They won the overall wahine division and the wahine kahiko this past Merrie Monarch!) then did two mele and one of his dancers performed.

HULA DANCER WITH MANU BOYD

After the opening performances, we got to the lei draping ceremony!

HFD CAPTAIN JAMES TODD GETS READY TO CLEAN DOWN THE STATUE

GIVING KAMEHAMEHA A LITTLE FACIAL

OOPS! LOOKS A LITTLE COMPROMISING!

 Then the volunteers began to bring out the long strands of plumeria:

STRANDS OF PLUMERIA

Then it was time to string the lei on Kamehameha:
 

CAPTAIN TODD GETTING THE FIRST STRANDS

GOING UP

(The previous pictures are actually of the first strands of lei, but then I switched to a video which is why the picture below has lei on the statue already.)

PLACING THE STRANDS ON THE STATUE

Next a long stream of various groups gave their offerings to be placed on or by the statue.

LADIES DANCE HULA FROM AHAHUI KAAHUMANU SOCIETY

ROYAL ORDER OF KAMEHAMEHA'S OFFERING

 Since watching all the offerings weren't that interested I thought I'd check in on the car.  I walked down the sidewalk and looked across the street to where I had parked Brian's car and saw...

NO CAR!!!

I am ashamed to say that I completely freaked out.  First of all I was super mad at myself because I had taken the time to actually read all the stupid parking rules, but there were so many dumb signs I obviously misread one of them.  (People who write parking signage must go out of their way to be confusing) Second, I was upset because I didn't know anything about the car - license plate, make, model, etc.  And I wasn't sure that since I wasn't the registered owner if I'd even  be able to pick it up once I found out where it was towed to.  Some very nice police officers steered me along the way and I had another first...I rode TheBus for the first time.  I only had to take TheBus like three stops and then walk about two blocks to the impound lot.  Luckily for me I had brought my emergency cash fund so getting the car wasn't any financial strain (Thank you Dave Ramsey for that critical financial advice!).  It was so annoying to know that they had towed my car just about 20 minutes before I had gone to check on it and it was because I was 10 minutes into a "no-park" time.  Boo.

Nevertheless I was thoroughly relieved to have the car in hand and so I drove back to Ali'iolani Hale so that I could see the Kamehameha statue fully decked out.  All the crowds had dispersed by then and I was able to admire the final result of the ceremony.

KAMEHAMEHA STATUE IN FRONT OF ALI'IOLANI HALE

VERY LARGE HAT OFFERING!

 I enjoyed my opportunity to finally see this event, but it was definitely colored by me stupidly managing to get Brian's car towed.  So it turned out to be a very expensive tourist-y experience...ugh.