From the news archives 25 years ago: Tiki kills - General Tiki

T TikiTomD Grand Member (6 years) Flagler Beach, FL Joined: Sep 20, 2009 Posts: 700	T TikiTomD Posted posted on Wed, Dec 14, 2011 2:15 PM This article from the Google News archives introduced me to the melancholy saga of the now extinct Kona Lagoon Hotel (http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=oufuJXaDW1QC&dat=19860821&printsec=frontpage&hl=en, page 6)... Williamson Daily News August 21, 1986 The Kona Lagoon Hotel opened in 1974 on a site considered to be sacred by the native Hawaiians. It closed in 1988 after its owner, Kona Hawaiian Associates, went bankrupt and the lease was sold to a Japanese business with plans to renovate and combine it into a single resort with neighboring Keauhou Beach Hotel. Those plans went awry and Azabu USA, the Japanese business that bought the lease, abandoned the property in 1995. It was finally torn down in 2004, with plans to restore the culturally-significant sites on the property. The grounds of the hotel include the remains of three heiau or ancient Hawaiian temples, as well as petroglyphs. Two of these heiau were luakini, temples of human sacrifice. The hotel itself was built upon the dwelling place of supernatural twin sisters, `aumakua who took the form of lizards, according to Hawaiian legend. In the Hawaiian culture, it is extremely bad luck to harm a manifested` aumakua. And there is more, according to the Historical Marker Database: “A legend exists that [the Maui king] Kamalalawalu was captured and taken to the Ke'eku Heiau (behind the former Kona Lagoon Hotel) where he was impaled and kept alive for 10 or 11 days. After this period he was slain and his body was towed out to sea for the niuhi (man eating sharks). What was left of his bones were put with the bones of his two dogs that came to Hawaii with the Maui chief and these bones were sent back to Maui.” The locals considered the Kona Lagoon Hotel cursed / haunted from the start, with the same fate expected to befall any business that might succeed it. For more reading, see: The Honolulu Advertiser October 14, 2002 ”Kona Lagoon Hotel may be torn down” Honolulu Star-Bulletin June 23, 2004 ”Demolition of Big Isle’s Kona Lagoon Hotel starts” The Harry Helms Blog April 2, 2009 ”The Haunted Heiaus Of Kailua-Kona, Hawaii” Big Island Tourist Dotcom ”Return to the Surf” Here’s a Kona Lagoon Hotel postcard image from Cardcow.com... And here’s a 1983 Kona Lagoon Hotel brochure for sale on eBay... -Tom

This article from the Google News archives introduced me to the melancholy saga of the now extinct Kona Lagoon Hotel (http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=oufuJXaDW1QC&dat=19860821&printsec=frontpage&hl=en, page 6)...

Williamson Daily News August 21, 1986

The Kona Lagoon Hotel opened in 1974 on a site considered to be sacred by the native Hawaiians. It closed in 1988 after its owner, Kona Hawaiian Associates, went bankrupt and the lease was sold to a Japanese business with plans to renovate and combine it into a single resort with neighboring Keauhou Beach Hotel. Those plans went awry and Azabu USA, the Japanese business that bought the lease, abandoned the property in 1995. It was finally torn down in 2004, with plans to restore the culturally-significant sites on the property.

The grounds of the hotel include the remains of three heiau or ancient Hawaiian temples, as well as petroglyphs. Two of these heiau were luakini, temples of human sacrifice. The hotel itself was built upon the dwelling place of supernatural twin sisters, aumakua who took the form of lizards, according to Hawaiian legend. In the Hawaiian culture, it is extremely bad luck to harm a manifested aumakua. And there is more, according to the Historical Marker Database: “A legend exists that [the Maui king] Kamalalawalu was captured and taken to the Ke'eku Heiau (behind the former Kona Lagoon Hotel) where he was impaled and kept alive for 10 or 11 days. After this period he was slain and his body was towed out to sea for the niuhi (man eating sharks). What was left of his bones were put with the bones of his two dogs that came to Hawaii with the Maui chief and these bones were sent back to Maui.” The locals considered the Kona Lagoon Hotel cursed / haunted from the start, with the same fate expected to befall any business that might succeed it.

For more reading, see:

The Honolulu Advertiser October 14, 2002 ”Kona Lagoon Hotel may be torn down”

Honolulu Star-Bulletin June 23, 2004 ”Demolition of Big Isle’s
Kona Lagoon Hotel starts”

The Harry Helms Blog April 2, 2009 ”The Haunted Heiaus Of Kailua-Kona, Hawaii”

Big Island Tourist Dotcom ”Return to the Surf”

Here’s a Kona Lagoon Hotel postcard image from Cardcow.com...

And here’s a 1983 Kona Lagoon Hotel brochure for sale on eBay...

-Tom

Post #617354 by TikiTomD on Wed, Dec 14, 2011 2:15 PM