RED WATERS OF WAI’ANAPANAPA
A beautiful young princess named Popoalaea once caught the attention of a powerful, older warrior chief named Kakae and became his wife. Kakae became jealous and suspicious that his wife was cheating on him, so he beat her and made her life miserable. Wanting to escape his evil ways, Popoalaea fleed with one of her female friends to a lava cave at Wai’anapanapa, hidden by a pool of water at the entrance of the cave.
In search of her whereabouts, Kakae furiously discovered their reflections in the pool of water, ordering his men to kill them both, darkening the rocks of the cavern with blood. Today, it’s said that on certain nights, the water appears red, perhaps due to the gathering of the red opae-ula (tiny shrimp) in addition to a reminder of the blood of the slain princess.
