Pia, Kūpaua and Niu Valleys — and Streams

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As a kid growing up, I rarely ever traveled to East Honolulu. We were in Moiliili and the rest of our family lived westward. Niu Valley may as well have been Kailua or a neighbor island. Hoofing through this area was interesting. On the phone map, there is only one short canal. On the topography map, two streams up mauka come out of two respective valleys. It's unusual because similar areas in East Honolulu are considered gulches on the topo map, but these are specifically written as valleys. They are long, long distances, so maybe that's it. 

The west-side valley and stream, Pia, is like many East Honolulu basins. On the other side, Kūpaua was once the subject of interest for an exploratory well. That was, it appears, shot down after an archaeological find. That study was in 1994, and Kūpaua has remained relatively untouched beyond the residential zone.


















Pia Stream runs below the Haleola St./Halema‘uma‘u St. intersection. There are two spots where these streets meet, and this is the mauka location. Never seen a stream go directly below a four-way before. 







Makai side of Pia Stream/Halema‘uma‘u Street. 







Now this gets real close to the shopping center, Halema‘uma‘u Place. No signage. Nondescript bridge. And lots and lots of ducks. I like to think that the purity of the water is what attracts them. Then I remember "Duck Pond" by Isenberg Street and Kapiolani Blvd. in the 1970s. It was filthy, but a few ducks still congregated there. 



Classic V-shaped channel. Looking forward to seeing the 19th-century map of this valley one day. 



Above, the view from Halema‘uma‘u Place, the merge of Pia Stream on the left and Kūpaua Stream on the right is easily visible. Pretty cool. I was worried there would be no view. 




The makai side. I wonder who feeds the duckies. 









Before venturing down to the highway and the mouth of the combined streams, I headed northeast. 

Kūpaua Valley, Kūpaua Stream. 



Classic boulder basin, though I wonder if they just didn't have many big boulders around. 





Kūpaua Stream meets Halema‘uma‘u Street

Once the stream, even channelized, enters the middle of the residential zone, it looks like the forest is encroaching. Even in the driest of stream beds, on concrete. I have no photos of this exact area pre-development, but it must've been zero fun clearing the aina. This is just a few blocks east of the Pia Stream bridge. 













The makai side of Halema‘uma‘u Street. The signage is nice, but not quite precise. "East Fork" is descriptive, but kind of like the 1990s and directional names of universities before the actual names of the college towns were included. This is Kūpaua Stream. 








With two predominantly long valleys, Pia and Kūpaua, feeding into Niu, I'm guessing it can get spooky during heavy rain. The width of Niu Stream is key, and the V-shaped design works. Think of streams in town, like Makiki, that are narrow, traditionally shaped (no V) and occasionally overflow during torrential rain. Manoa-Palolo Drainage Canal and Niu Stream/Ditch are much wider. 


At Kalanianaole Hwy. and the mouth of the stream, it's interesting that the direction is so diagonal. In town, previous waterways like Kali‘a — the precursor to Manoa-Palolo — were also diagonal, except it went eastward as it emptied in Waikiki. 























The mouth of Niu Stream at Niu Beach. 





Niu Peninsula on the edge of the shoreline at Maunalua Bay. Not as many coconut trees around here despite the name, but the peninsula has several. Like Wailupe Peninsula, Niu Peninsula was once a fish pond. I know I'm in the minority when I say I wish all fish ponds and natural springs had been preserved. 





A view from Kalanianaole Hwy of Pia and Kūpaua Valleys, with Kulepeamoa Ridge in between.




Some extra info about these valleys below.


> Board of Water Supply: Exploratory well, 1994 (Kūpaua Valley)
Of interest: "Due to the presence of cultural remains at the site an archaeological survey will be conducted prior to construction of the access road..."
Boyd Dixon, Ph.D., for Maguire Group, Archaeological Reconaissance on Five Board of Water Supply Wells:
"The possibility was strengthened by the recover of a small polished stone adze on the surface..." 
Note: It appears no well was drilled in Kūpaua Valley. 

> Book: The New Year's Eve Flood on Oahu, Hawaii, Dec. 31, 1987-Jan. 1, 1988
"Torrential rains fell over the southeastern portion of the island on New Year's Eve, precipitating major flooding in several suburban neighborhoods and resulting in $34 million in damages. Neither the current meteorological capabilities nor the present flood control structures for the Oahu area proved adequate to predict or control the deluge."




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