Adds updated video 8/6/20
I parked there and enjoyed the cool breeze on a hot day. Lots of open field, basketball and volleyball courts, and even a legit jungle gym for keiki. But my purpose was to get out of the car, walk across the road and explore Niniko Stream on the ewa side of Pali Highway.
Instead, I got out and noticed soon enough a little creek near a big tree. I looked on my phone map. Nothing. Not a concrete ditch either. So I began at the tail end, where the tiny stream empties into a grill and goes under the park. It was until later that I realized this is also known as Queen Emma Park, or Queen Emma Square. The property has her summer palace on the makai side, and across the road, there is a facility for kids in her name.
The creek has some tiny fish, quite perky, doing their thing. Follow the water and it comes from a concrete structure that reminds me of the one up on Dowsett Ave. where Niniko Stream goes under the road. I wondered about this one, and guessed that maybe this waterway also comes from under the roadway, but there is no visible stream on the mauka side of Pa‘iwa Road. I walked across and stuck my nose through a bush. I could hear water. And there it is, a natural, little stream. The sound of the water dropping as it ran underground was like being in the forest a mile or two up the valley.
It's an amazing work of art in the midst of what is now urban Honolulu. But wind the clock back a century, and this was possibly a very useful and valuable creek that was the reason Queen Emma's summer palace was built here. In a relatively quiet and less habited Nu‘uanu Valley, this creek may have been pure and clean. Leading straight to the summer palace, surrounded by trees, adding to the cooler environment. Queen Emma was known to spend much time there in her garden, so this stream may have been a primary source. Maybe there were also natural springs. Part of her legacy is Queen's Hospital (now Medical Center). She died so young, just 49 when she passed (1836-1885).
Also here at the park is a landmark. I noticed it only as an afterthought, a boulder made of lava sitting alone. Apparently, these benchmarks are fairly common across the country. This one has been here for almost a century.
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