Haunted Honolulu: A U.S. Ghost Adventures Tour
I received a text message around noon to meet him at 6:45 p.m. at the King Kamehameha Statue, across from the Iolani Palace. My daughter and I arrived about 10 minutes ahead of time and were looking out for a man wearing a green hat holding a walking stick. And, though we were very aware of our surroundings, that man still seemed to materialize out of the ether at 6:45 p.m, almost like a spectral presence. This is how our haunted Honolulu tour with U.S. Ghost Adventures began.
About U.S. Ghost Adventures
U.S. Ghost Adventures holds walking tours throughout the United States. There are more than 100 city and walking tours from which to choose. In addition, U.S. Ghost Adventures has haunted pub crawls and Lizzie Borden Ghost Tours too.
With so many options, I had difficulty deciding which tour in which to participate. However, my family already had a Honolulu trip planned, so the Honolulu Haunts tour seemed a great initiation tour.
The Haunted Honolulu Tour
Our tour group met at the King Kamehameha statue, at Honolulu’s historic courthouse. The walking tour took us to four paranormal sites during the one hour. We additionally got an add-on tour, which included a couple of more stops and a handful more ghost stories.
Disclosure: Family Well Traveled received complementary admission to the Honolulu Haunts tour. This review, however, states my personal opinions about the tour and is in no way influenced by the complementary admission.
My daughter and I met with our tour guide, Terry, and two other participants during the tour.
Walking Through History
Hawaii is a true crossroads of the world. It has a polyglot populace, with generational Hawaiians, Polynesian, Asian and European influences converging to create a diverse and multifaceted history.
All of these influences contributed to our ghostly walking tour, as we learned historical facts and myths from most of these influences.
Most of the historical tales on our tour took place within the past 150 years, with some events taking place as recently as 2014.
Our guide, a former history professor, seamlessly wove historic tales and paranormal sightings with a master storyteller’s panache. He kept us waiting, sometimes impatiently, to learn more of each site and story.
I’ll admit that I am skeptical of most ghost stories, but I could fully appreciate the historic tales we learned on our walk.
The Tales Told
OK. I am not going to reveal the paranormal stories we heard on our journey. But, I will whet your appetite with some haunted hints.
If you want to hear the paranormal stories firsthand, you can use this Honolulu Haunts Link to book the tour.
During our haunted Honolulu tour, we learned about a dog-like creature that created a ruckus and raised our hackles.
We discovered how the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 still strikes fear in those who work in Honolulu City Hall.
Terry told us of a spectral tour guide (which further raised questions as to his unexpected arrival at our meeting spot).
Stories of hangings, mutilations, and murder in cold blood left us unnerved.
We discovered how bubonic plague impacted Honolulu.
The sad story of Hawaii’s last monarch, Queen Liliuokalani, left us wondering if the wrongfully deposed monarch still haunted the Iolani Palace rooms and grounds.
And, finally, and most frightening, we heard tales of the Night Marchers (a band of ghostly, beheaded Hawaiian soldiers). Everyone in Hawaii hears of the Night Marchers, and many claim to have seen them sweeping down mountainsides. So, it’s unsurprising that our haunted Honolulu tour would include a story of the same gruesome spirits.
Picking Up Paranormal Activity
During our walking tour, we each received an EMF detector which we could use around Iolani Palace, Market Street, and the other sites.
The other participants on our tour seemed to have little activity as they hungrily watched for the green lights to rise to the orange and red level.
My daughter, on the other hand, saw many instances where her detector rose from the green to red, especially on Market Street (which Terry called the Heart of Darkness). Maybe she had the right touch with the detector, or possibly, spirits were more attuned to her.
I’m a Sceptic, but
Time for a couple of unusual incidents on our tour.
First, at the Iolani Palace, I wanted to get a photo of my daughter holding her EMF detector. I attempted to capture her detector with the palace in the background.
Later, inspecting my photos, I found this picture. Yes, it is possible that I moved when taking the picture. However, I have never taken a photo with this style of blurriness. Was the spirit of Queen Liliuokalani on hand?
The second incident was at the U.S. Post Office building. While listening to the story, I noticed a light turn on in a second floor window. The light went off. I assumed a security person was patrolling the floor and switched the light on.
Maybe 30 seconds later, it went back on and off quickly. This happened about four times, each time, the light illuminated a shorter period of time.
No other room had a light turn on and off.
After the tour, my daughter asked me if I saw anything unusual at the Post Office. She, too, saw the light turn on and off inexplicably four times.
Neither of us mentioned this to our guide or other participants. And neither of us has a good explanation for why that room (and only that room) had the light repeatedly turn on and off.
Who Was that Guide?
At the conclusion of our 90 minute tour, our Guide Terry said his goodbyes and joked that he would now walk off into the Honolulu night.
We laughed, thanked him and began to walk away to reflect on the tales just told.
I did however, take a quick glance to once again see our guide. And, as he seemed to mysteriously materialize at the meeting spot, he once again had disappeared from the site. That left me wondering once again if the story he told of an apparitional tour guide early in the night had more significance than I first thought.
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