Kaneana Cave aka Makua Cave

Hawaiians have the best legends.  Over on the Waianae side, there was a beautiful young woman who had a love affair with a shape-shifting shark god.  Naturally,  a child resulted.  Nanaue was a lovely, charming boy and his mother loved him greatly. 

Unfortunately, he had a birth defect.  On his back between his shoulder blades was a gaping shark's mouth, complete with rows of jagged teeth.

Fearing for her son, the young mother hid this deformity from everyone and fed her son nothing but taro, fruit, and vegetables.  Her hope was that he would never develop a taste for meat. 

One day, she left her son in the care of her brother.  Her brother, not understanding the reason for the diet restrictions, fed the young boy some poi and pork.  This first taste of meat created a craving within the boy.  And then slowly, one by one, villagers began disappearing.

The mother discovered her son had been snacking on the locals.  She knew it is just a matter of time before the villagers figured it out and killed him.

She took him up far up the coast and hid him in a cave.  There he lived out the rest of his life, denying his carnivorous urges.  When the craving becomes too strong, Nanaue goes into the ocean, finds someone who is swimming alone, drags him back to the cave and eats him.

As with many legends, there are variations to this story.  The cave's official name is Kaneana Cave, meaning Cave of Man, although some people call it Makua Cave which means Parent Cave.  To this day, the Kaneana Cave is still considered a holy site.  Visitors are known leave offerings (food, leis, or salt) on the alter near the center of the room.

The main cave only goes back about 100ft.  The left split narrows to a small passage.  If one were to crawl on one's belly, it is suppose to open up into another room and continue for another 250ft. (None of us were adventurous enough to find out.)  The right split dead-ends in this little nook.

Estimated to be 150,000 years old, Kaneana was formed from volcanic rock and carved out by the ocean.  If one looks closely, one can see large veins of obsidian glimmering on the side of the cave.