We posted Lopaka and Tanya Kapanuiʻs history of this mysterious Waiʻanae cave a couple weeks back. Since then, people have been sharing their own stories on Instagram. Here are some unedited highlights.
hawaiighostguy (our authors) added info on the photo: Candles were put there by members of the Wai’anae Civic Club as they all gathered for stories of Nanaue and his father Kāmohoaliʻi.
kimaaa33: A few years ago, I wanted to try to hike up to the cave, but some point partway up the trail I got hit with a strong feeling I shouldn’t be there, though I didn’t know exactly why. I just knew that there was strong mana and I felt it. Listened to my gut and only recently learned of this story! I was always told to listen to the ‘aīna and it will tell you what you need to know. Haven’t tried to go back since.
808michelle_m: Mākua right? My daughter was drawn to the cave... she kept on about going to it so I finally took her there. I took picture facing in and standing at the back facing out. Then I could see all the elementals in the cave and then the other realm. This was all day time too. My daugh felt comfortable there.🤷♀️
girlfish_art: My dad is a Makaha boy he always called it Makua cave and always talked about the menehune in there and a story about a Boy Scout troop. The cave is really chicken skin we aren’t allowed to go in there
ponovybez33: Yes many times going there felt like i was being watched. I pūle before going inside and ask for permission with all respect.🙏🏾🤙🏾
rollinoldskoo: My son can’t enter the cave… he feels something wrong there.
lana_casiello: The cave has this weird physical feeling, almost like if you were standing in a room of magnets pulling on the iron in your blood. Ended up there unintentionally before I realized it was that cave. I left offerings for the ancestors with my daughters then decided to move it along.
rkm.x.clm.x2: Me and @_jahwaiian808 had a crazy experience in that cave.. walk in the cave really late at night and started to hear wat sounded like an “old Hawaiian man” groaning like he was in pain or something.. after we heard it the first time we instantly got frozen and silent.. n then it got louder n the sounds moved towards us spooking us out of our minds and running out of the cave.. upon getting back into the truck frantically, we didn’t take notice our truck had bin turned around a full 180 degrees and was facing the cave wen we drove off so quickly. It was only wen we were passing waikomo beach is wen we noticed our truck was facing the opposite direction wen we go back in the truck than wen we first parked.. we parked with the truck facing the beach…. Never went back ever since.
ancientmaoli: My Kane’s tutu wahine was born with a sharks mouth on the back of her neck as well. We are truly blessed to still have our connect to our ancients.
braddahkods: I remember when I was about 10-11 years old my aunty took us to makaha beach to just listened to the waves but of course the gates were closed it was around midnight and when we left to go home we just was coming up to Makua cave and from a distance we seen a haole couple walking out of the cave and the head lights of they’re car was shining into the cave my aunty told my uncle who was driving to pull over to see if they were ok when we pulled over the couple looked like they were talking to each other the guys back was facing us and the women was facing towards us my aunty asked if they were ok but they didn’t say anything the man turned to look at us but he had a blank look she asked again still no word but the man started walking towards the van (our vehicle) and said nothing just a blank look on his face and as he got closer my aunty could sense something wasn’t right so we immediately took off it gives me chicken skin till this day.
A. Kam Napier can be reached at kam@alohastatedaily.com.
