Pali Highway

The white colonial mansion, built in 1848, was a summer home for King Kamehameha IV and Queen Emma. The museum contains koa furniture and quilts as well as Emma's wedding dress.The house consists of six rooms with the one across the back added in 1865 to accommodate the visit of the Duke of Edinburgh. It's highlight is a Gothic curved glass cabinet given by Queen Victoria for the wedding of the royal couple. It was made in Germany from Koa logs shipped from Hawaii.The front parlor room has a round dining table in an early mission style and is one of the only pieces remaining from John Young II, a missionary who built the house and left it to Queen Emma. The baby grand piano (1865) was picked up on the royal family's grand tour of Europe. The rosewood bookcases display symbols of royalty such as a woman's feather cape and a chiefs helmet made of roots.The front bedroom across the hall contains a four-poster bed of Koa wood (1842), a sleigh bed with a crown, and a cradle in the shape of a canoe decorated with shells.Three rooms across the middle of the house display Hawaiian feather capes (one using 100,000 feathers), wooden bowls, glass, silver, jewelry, and tapa cloths.The house has been a museum since 1913 and is operated by the Daughters of Hawaii. While the King and Queen had six houses, this is one of only two which remain standing.

Nuuanu Pali today offers spectacular views of the island plus of itself where 2,000 to 3,000 foot cliffs flank this gap at the top of the island. Historically, the site is that of the final decisive battle where Kamehameha defeated the warriors of the kingdom of Oahu to unite the Hawaiian Islands and become the first King of all the Islands. He did so because he was the first to use cannon. His troops drove the Oahu tribes up the Pali valley so they fought with their backs to the 1,500 foot Nuuanu Pali. Most of the defenders fell to their deaths.

By taking a small detour through the densely-forested Nuuanu Valley, there is a chance to visit a series of places of interest - Queen Emma's Summer Palace, the Punchbowl National Cemetery and the Royal Mausoleum.Its beautiful scenery and its pleasant and cool climate combine to make Nuuanu Valley a popular place to live. Honolulu's finest villas are to be found here.

Indian in design, Soto Zen Buddhist Temple is noted for its altar.