Place Names

October 4, 2015 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Waikapū

Maui is the second largest of the Hawaiian Islands, and covers about 730 square miles. Maui consists of two separate volcanoes with a combining isthmus between the two.

The Mauna Kahālāwai (West Maui Mountain) is probably the older of the two; Haleakala (East Maui) was last active about 1790, whereas activity on West Maui is wholly pre-historic.

The island of Maui is comprised of 12-moku (districts,) that are made up of a number of ahupuaʻa. The moku of Wailuku makes up an area known as Nā Wai ʻEhā (“The Four Great Waters”) – Waiheʻe River, Waiehu Stream, Wailuku (ʻĪao) Stream and Waikapū Stream. (Waikapū Stream is the only Nā Wai ‘Ehā stream that drains to the southern coast of Maui.)

“From Waiheʻe to Waikapū there is much good land below and bounding the ancient terrace area on the kula and in the lower valleys which would be ideal for sweet potato culture, but it is said that little was grown in this section because there was so much taro.” (Handy; Hana Pono)

“For generations the small, slowly growing population clustered around shore sites near streams that supplied them with water. Such sites are best for inshore fishing.”

“When they acquired taro, they no doubt rapidly cleared away the jungle along the streams to make room for taro patches, and there was a beginning of terraced flats that could be irrigated directly from the stream.” (Handy; Hana Pono)

The fertile kalo terraces, complex system of irrigation ʻauwai (ditches) and abundant fresh water from this area sustained Hawaiian culture for 1,000-years. Due to abundant water and fertile lands, there was substantial settlement between the 300- and 600-foot elevation at Waikapū.

The terraces were irrigated with water brought in ditches from springs and streams high in the valleys, allowing extensive areas of the valleys to be cultivated. The irrigation ditches and pondfields were engineered to allow the cool water to circulate among the taro plants and from terrace to terrace, avoiding stagnation and overheating by the sun, which would rot the taro tubers.

An acre of irrigated pondfields produced as much as five times the amount of taro as an acre of dryland cultivation. Over a period of several years, irrigated pondfields could be as much as 10 or 15 times more productive than unirrigated taro gardens, as dryland gardens need to lie fallow for greater lengths of time than irrigated gardens. (Kelly)

In Waikapū, there are different stories associated with the name of this valley and ahupuaʻa; the story of Puapualenalena and the conch shell may be the earliest known.

It was said that in ancient times a conch shell would ring out from the valley, heard around the island it was so loud and resounding. On the opposite, northern side of the stream a dog named Puapualenalena was infatuated with this conch and wanted it for himself.

One day, the owners of the conch had been careless and Puapualenalena gained entrance to the cave on the southern side of the stream that hid the conch, and from that point on it no longer sounded through the valley. The area was so named for the conch (Pu), The Water (Wai) of the Conch (Ka Pu.) (Nupepa Kuokoa, 1872; Hana Pono)

Some say the name comes from Kamehameha after the famous battle of Kepaniwai, when the defeated the forces of Kalanikūpule. Two versions are told.

One is Wai-ka-pu (the Water of the Conch,) for the place where Kamehameha sounded the Pu to begin the battle for Maui. The second is Wai-Kapu (the Sacred Water.) “Kamehameha landed at Kalepolepo, and a kapu was put upon the nearest stream. It became sacred to royalty, as was the custom and is known as Wai-kapu to this hour-that is, the forbidden water”. (Stoddard; Hana Pono)

The lower isthmus (between Mauna Kahālāwai and Haleakala) was sandy. “We passed through Waikapū in the middle of the isthmus …. Between this place and the northern shore, we walked over a bed of sand (a part of an extensive plain).” (Bingham)

In more modern times, the Waikapū ahupuaʻa and surrounding lowlands were given to Henry Cornwall for a sugar plantation, Waikapū Sugar Company, which eventually merged with others to become Wailuku Sugar Company (and later consolidated into the Alexander & Baldwin lands.).

Starting in about the 1850s, sugar cultivation destroyed the extensive terracing; by the mid-1900s, only remnant representations remained.

By 1866, a letter published in the Hawaiian language newspaper Nūpepa Kūʻokoʻa lamented “the current condition of once cultivated taro patches being dried up by the foreigners, where they are now planting sugar cane”.

“A permanent railroad was laid to Waiheʻe and to Waikapū connecting at Wailuku, from whence the cane was carried to a mill above Kahului. Another permanent line connected the other plantations. From these portable lines were laid into the fields, and it was thus possible to dispense with hundreds of mules and cattle and drivers heretofore used.” (Girvin)

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Waikapu Valley-1888

Waikapu-GoogleEarth

Historic_Moku_of_Maui-(WC)-Map

August 16, 2015 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

“It was the same from Hawaiʻi to Kauai –
no name was given without some reason.”
(Kamakau)

In old Hawaiʻi, it was the nature of ‘place’ that shaped the practical, cultural and spiritual view of the Hawaiian people.

In ancient times, the naming of a place was not a task to be undertaken lightly, for the Hawaiians recognized the power inherent in a name.

In giving a name to a piece of land, whether it be an island, a hill or a rocky headland, the inhabitants of ancient Hawaiʻi were placing a part of themselves on the landscape. (Reeve)

In Hawaiian culture, natural and cultural resources are one and the same. Traditions describe the formation (literally the birth) of the Hawaiian Islands and the presence of life on, and around them, in the context of genealogical accounts.

Place names reflect the way in which the ancient Hawaiians viewed their island home, and today, centuries later, they provide windows through which we can look back into the past and see the world again as they saw it, through a Hawaiian perspective.

The name chosen might reflect the physical characteristics of the place, it might recall some event which occurred there, or it might honor a god or gods.

One need only to listen to the ancient mele, the traditional poetry of these islands, to appreciate the important role which place names (and the remembrances they evoke) played in Hawaiian culture. (Reeve)

“The ancients gave names to the natural features of the land according to their ideas of fitness. … There were many names used by the ancients to designate appropriately the varieties of rain peculiar to each part of the island coast; the people of each region naming the varieties of rain as they deemed fitting. … The ancients also had names for the different winds.” (Malo)

For place names were a reaffirming link, not only to the land itself, but to all the events, both legendary and historic, which had taken place on that land and to the ancestors who had lived on and were now buried within it.

All forms of the natural environment, from the skies and mountain peaks, to the watered valleys and lava plains, and to the shore line and ocean depths are believed to be embodiments of Hawaiian gods and deities.

Place names are often descriptive of: (1) the terrain, (2) an event in history, (3) the kind of resources a particular place was noted for or (4) the kind of land use which occurred in the area so named. Sometimes an earlier resident of a given land area was also commemorated by place names. (Maly)

“Cultural Attachment” embodies the tangible and intangible values of a culture – how a people identify with, and personify the environment around them.

It is the intimate relationship (developed over generations of experiences) that people of a particular culture feel for the sites, features, phenomena and natural resources etc, that surround them – their sense of place. This attachment is deeply rooted in the beliefs, practices, cultural evolution and identity of a people. (Kent)

The meaning of a particular Hawaiian place name might have been evident to all, or understandable only to those intimately familiar with the place and its history.

Often times a single place name carried more than one meaning. In addition to its easily discernible descriptive meaning, a place name might also possess a kaona, a hidden meaning.

Hawaiian customs and practices demonstrate the belief that all portions of the land and environment are related; the place names given to them tell us that areas are of cultural importance. (Maly)

“Sense of place is about the feeling that emanates from a place as a combination of the physical environment and the social construct of people activity (or absence of) that produces the feeling of a place. … People seek out Hawaiʻi because of the expectation of what its sense of place will be when they get there.” (Apo)

“Sense of place helps to define the relationships we have as hosts and guests, as well as how we treat one another and our surroundings.” (Taum)

“In the Hawaiian mind, a sense-of-place was inseparably linked with self-identity and self-esteem. To have roots in a place meant to have roots in the soil of permanence and continuity.”

“Almost every significant activity of his life was fixed to a place.”

“No genealogical chant was possible without the mention of personal geography; no myth could be conceived without reference to a place of some kind; no family could have any standing in the community unless it had a place; no place of significance, even the smallest, went without a name; and no history could have been made or preserved without reference, directly or indirectly, to a place.”

“So, place had enormous meaning for Hawaiians of old.” (Kanahele) (Lots of information here from Maly, Kanahele and Reeve.)

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A map of Hawaii printed in 1837 by students of Lorrin Andrews at Lahainaluna

June 27, 2015 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

West Maui

Maui captured “Best Island in the World” honors in the annual Conde Nast Traveler Readers’ Choice Awards Poll nearly twenty-years in a row. Readers rave about this “veritable paradise,” calling it a “combination of tropical ambience and American comforts.”

Maui is known for its beaches and water activities, and the west side boasts some of the most beautiful shores in Hawaiʻi, and it also has the distinction of having some of the most beautiful sunset views on the planet.

West Maui is the second most visited place in Maui – (behind the beaches) – a combination of natural scenic beauty, white sandy beaches, lush green uplands, and near-perfect weather, rich culture and a good serving of Hawaiian history in its sunny shores.

In West Maui, you can head to the beach, be captivated by the beauty of its natural scenes and marine life, visit the different historical attractions, and immerse yourself in the local art and culture.

West Maui has experienced six major historical eras, from its days as an ancient Hawaiian Royal Center, capital and home of the Hawaiian Monarchy, home to Missionaries, Landing/Provisioning for Whalers, the Sugar and Pineapple Plantation era and now Tourism.

All of these historical eras are still visible in West Maui today.

West Maui has played an important role in the history of Maui and the neighboring islands of Molokai, Lānaʻi and Kahoʻolawe, with West Maui serving as the Royal Center, selected for its abundance of resources and recreation opportunities, with good surfing and canoe-landing sites being favored.

Probably there is no portion of the Valley Isle, around which gathers so much historic value as West Maui. It was the former capital and favorite residence of kings and chiefs.

After serving for centuries as home to ruling chiefs, West Maui was selected by Kamehameha III and his chiefs to be the seat of government; here the first Hawaiian constitution was drafted and the first legislature was convened.

Hawai‘i’s whaling era began in 1819 when two New England ships became the first whaling ships to arrive in the Hawaiian Islands. Over the next two decades, the Pacific whaling fleet nearly quadrupled in size and in the record year of 1846, 736-whaling ships arrived in Hawai’i.

West Maui was the port of choice for whaling ships. Central among the islands, West Maui was a convenient spot from which to administer the affairs of both Hawaiian and foreigner.

Since the anchorage was an open roadstead, vessels could always approach or leave it with any wind that blew. No pilot was needed here. Vessels generally approached through the channel between Maui and Moloka‘i, standing well over to Lanai, as far as the trade would carry them, then take the sea breeze, which would set in during the forenoon, and head for the town.

In November 1822, the 2nd Company from the New England missionaries set sail on the ‘Thames’ from New Haven, Connecticut for the Hawaiian Islands; they arrived on April 23, 1823 (included in this Company were missionaries Charles Stewart, William Richards and Betsey Stockton – they were the first to settle and set up a mission in West Maui.)

The Christian religion really caught on when High Chiefess Keōpūolani (widow of Kamehameha I and mother of future kings) is said to have been the first convert of the missionaries in the islands, receiving baptism from Rev. William Ellis in West Maui on September 16, 1823, just before her death.

In 1831, classes at the new Mission Seminary at Lahainaluna (later known as Lahainaluna (‘Upper Lahaina’)) began. The school was established by the American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions “to instruct young men of piety and promising talents” (training preachers and teachers.) It is the oldest high school west of the Mississippi River.

Per the requests of the chiefs, the American Protestant missionaries began teaching the makaʻāinana (commoners.) Literacy levels exploded.

From 1820 to 1832, in which Hawaiian literacy grew by 91 percent, the literacy rate on the US continent grew by only 6 percent and did not exceed the 90 percent level until 1902 – three hundred years after the first settlers landed in Jamestown – overall European literacy rates in 1850 had not been much above 50 percent.

Centuries ago, the early Polynesian settlers to Hawaiʻi brought sugar cane with them and demonstrated that it could be grown successfully.

It was not until 1823 that several members of the West Maui Mission Station began to process sugar from native sugarcanes for their tables. By the 1840s, efforts were underway in West Maui to develop a means for making sugar as a commodity.

Starting in the 1850s, when the Hawaiian Legislature passed “An Act for the Governance of Masters and Servants,” a section of which provided the legal basis for a contract-labor system, labor shortages were eased by bringing in contract workers from Asia, Europe and North America.

It is not likely anyone then foresaw the impact this would have on the cultural and social structure of the islands. The sugar industry is at the center of Hawaiʻi’s modern diversity of races and ethnic cultures.

Of the nearly 385,000-workers that came, many thousands stayed to become a part of Hawai‘i’s unique ethnic mix. Hawai‘i continues to be one of the most culturally-diverse and racially-integrated places.

Historically Maui’s second largest industry, pineapple cultivation has also played a large role in forming Maui’s modern day landscape. The pineapple industry began on Maui in 1890 with Dwight D. Baldwin’s Haiku Fruit and Packing Company on the northeast side of the island.

One of the first hotels in West Maui was the Pioneer Hotel – founded in 1901. George Freeland arrived in the Lahaina roadstead on a ship that had just come from a long voyage through the south seas; he noted a need for a hotel.

It remained the only place for visitors to stay on Maui’s west side until the early-1960s. Tourism exploded; West Maui is a full-fledged tourist destination second only to Waikīkī.

Lahaina’s Front Street, offering an incredible oceanfront setting, people of diverse cultures, architecture and incredible stories of Hawaiʻi’s past, was recognized as one of the American Planning Association’s 2011 “Great Streets in America.”

For many, it’s more simply stated … Maui No Ka Oi (Maui is the best)

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Whales from McGregor Point-(cphamrah)

Olowalu-Petroglyphs

Port-of-Lahaina-Maui-1848

Lahaina,_Maui,_c._1831

Bathing scene, Lahaina, Maui, watercolor, by James Gay Sawkins-1855

Lahaina,_West_Maui,_Sandwich_Islands2,_watercolor_and_pencil,_by_James_Gay_Sawkins-1855

Whale-ships at Lahaina-(vintagehawaii)-1848

Lahaina as seen from Lahainaluna

Edward_T._Perkins,_Rear_View_of_Lahaina,_1854

Lahaina Courthouse-fronting beach-(now Lahaina Small Boat Harbor)

Lahaina_from_offshore_in-1885

Lahaina_Boat_Landing

Lahaina Harbor before harbor perimeter retaining wall built-ca 1940

Pioneer Mill

Baldwin Packers Cannery (kapalua)

Lahaina, Front Street 1942

Lahaina Roads

McGregor_Point-Norwegian-Monument

Lahaina Tunnel Dedication (1951)

Banyan Tree located in courthouse square in the center of Lahaina

Humpback_Whale-Maui-(Stan_Butler-NOAA)-WC

1837 Map of the Islands; made by students at Lahainaluna School (Mission Houses)

June 4, 2015 by Peter T Young 3 Comments

Punaluʻu

Punaluʻu i ke kai kau haʻa a ka malihini
Punaluʻu, where the sea dances for the visitors.

“The coast of Kaoo (Kaʻū) presents a prospect of the most horrid and dreary kind: the whole country appearing to have undergone a total change from the effects of some dreadful convulsion.”

“The ground is every where covered with cinders and intersected in many places with black streaks, which seem to mark the course of a lava that has flowed, not many ages, back, from the mountain Roa [Mauna Loa] to the shore.”

“The southern promontory looks like the mere dregs of a volcano. The projecting headland is composed of broken and craggy rocks, piled irregularly on one another, and terminating in sharp points.” (King Captain Cook’s Journal. 1779)

Henry ʻŌpūkahaʻia was born around 1792 in the area between Punaluʻu and Nīnole. At the age of 16, after his parents had been killed, he boarded a sailing ship anchored in Kealakekua Bay and sailed to the continent. “Memoirs of Henry Obookiah” (the spelling of his name prior to establishment of the formal Hawaiian alphabet, based on its sound) was published.

ʻŌpūkahaʻia, inspired by many young men with proven sincerity and religious fervor of the missionary movement, had wanted to spread the word of Christianity back home in Hawaiʻi; his book, a compilation of his writing, inspired the Pioneer Company of missionaries to sail to Hawaiʻi (October 23, 1819.)

In June 1823, William Ellis joined American Missionaries Asa Thurston, Artemas Bishop and Joseph Goodrich on a tour of the island of Hawaiʻi to investigate suitable sites for mission stations.

Coming from Waiʻōhinu, Ellis noted, “The country appeared more thickly inhabited, than that over which we had travelled in the morning. The villages along the sea-shore were near together, and some of them extensive.”

The following is his perspective on the area at ‘Punaruu’ (Punaluʻu.) “(W)e came to Punaruu, where the people of that and the next village, Wailau, collected together in a large house, and were addressed by one of the company, on the nature and attributes of the true God.”

“We generally preferred speaking to the people in the open air, as we then had more hearers, than when we addressed them in a house. But in the middle of the day, we usually found it too hot to stand so long in the sun. The services, which we held in the morning and evening, were -always out of doors.”

“We now left the road by the sea-side, and directed our course towards the mountains. Our path lay over a rich yellow looking soil of decomposed lava, or over a fine vegetable mould, in which we occasionally saw a few masses of lava partially decomposed.”

“There was but little cultivation, though the ground appeared well adapted to the growth of any of the produce of the islands. After walking up a gentle ascent, about eight miles, we came to a solitary hamlet, called Makaʻaka, containing four or five houses in which three or four families were residing.” (Ellis, 1823)

During the 1830s, Protestant missionaries from Kona and Hilo would make occasional visits into Kaʻū but a permanent missionary presence would not be installed until the early-1840s when Catholic and Protestant missions were established in the district.

In 1842, the Protestant minister John Paris settled in Waiʻōhinu where he founded a church and school. In 1843, Rev. Paris reported that a stone meeting house (church) had been built at Punaluʻu and that the school’s average attendance there was 140. (Paris preached three Sundays each month at Waiʻōhinu and one Sunday at Punaluʻu.) Cultural Surveys)

Chester H Lyman in 1846, coming south from Volcano through the ʻōhiʻa forest of tree ferns and below Kilauea, passed through Kapapala, where he encountered dwellings and canoe-making sheds, the first such to be seen on descending the mountain.

He was impressed with the green hills, the moist state of the soil, the “several horses with cattle and goats” feeding near the chief’s house; and “the fires of Kilauea which shone up magnificently on the clouds like the light of a conflagration at evening.

Punaluʻu village he found “romantically situated on the beach, shut in in part by a rough lava stream.” Continuing along the shore, he passed the black-pebble beach of Nīnole and found “a succession of small villages” whose inhabitants were “extensively engaged in fishing.” (Handy)

While cattle and goats were the focus of commercial agriculture in the region in the 1850s, wheat growing was attempted in Kaʻū; but it proved difficult to co-ordinate the size of the wheat crop with the requirements of the flour mills. The business did not become a permanent one. (Kuykendall)

Life in Kaʻū during the 1860s was disrupted and devastated by the forces of nature. In March of 1868 began a sequence of major earthquakes and eruptions of Mauna Loa, a prelude to an earthquake in early April that precipitated an “earthquake and the tidal wave destroying the villages from Punaluʻu to Kaʻaluʻalu (north-east of South Point.”) (Handy)

Then, sugar changed the regional landscape. Alexander Hutchinson established the Hutchinson Sugar Company (1868) and Hawaiian Agricultural Company, was established in Pāhala (1876,) the latter used Punaluʻu as its port.

The railroad from Punaluʻu to the village of Keaiwa (where the Pāhala Sugar Mill was located) was reported in June 1878 to be “the first railroad in these islands”. Railroads continued to operate in Kaʻū until the 1940s but the Pāhala – Punaluʻu railroad was discontinued in 1929. (Cultural Surveys)

Starting in the late-1800s, to get people and goods around the Islands, folks would catch steamer ships; competitors Wilder Steamship Co (1872) and Inter-Island Steam Navigation Co (1883) ran different routes, rather than engage in head to head competition.

For Inter-Island’s routes, vessels left Honolulu stopping at Lāhainā and Māʻalaea Bay on Maui and then proceeding directly to Kailua-Kona.

From Kailua, the steamer went south stopping at the Kona ports of Nāpoʻopoʻo on Kealakekua Bay, Hoʻokena, Hoʻopuloa, rounding South Point, touching at the Kaʻū port of Honuʻapo and finally arriving at Punaluʻu, Kaʻū, the terminus of the route. (From Punaluʻu, five mile railroad took passengers to Pāhala and then coaches hauled the visitors to the volcano from the Kaʻū side.)

The Punaluʻu Harbor and Landing served the communities of Punaluʻu and Nīnole and the sugar plantation at Pāhala and was considered the “port town for the district in 1880.” (Orr) By the mid-1880s Punaluʻu had storehouses, a restaurant, a store, and numerous homes constructed of lumber. (Cultural Surveys)

C Brewer & Company acquired the sugar interests in the Pāhala to Nīnole-Punaluʻu area that were merged into Kaʻū Sugar (the last harvest was in 1996;) Brewer also went into macadamia nuts and other ventures.

Between 1969-1972, at Nīnole and Punaluʻu, C Brewer Properties, Ltd developed the Sea Mountain 18-hole golf course community, which included the Colony I condominium project, Kalana I single-family residential subdivision, the Aspen Institute Center for Humanistic Studies, the Black Sands Restaurant and the Kaʻū Center for History and Culture.

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Punaluu village, Hawaii-S00084-1880

Punalu‘u Landing c. 1880 showing portion of village-CS

Punaluu, Hawaii Island-PP-30-6-018-ca_1890

Punaluu landing, Hawaii Island-PP-30-6-002

Punaluu landing, Hawaii Island-PP-30-6-001-1915

Punalu‘u Landing from Punalu‘unui Heiau (‘sacrificial stone’ in foreground)

Portion of 1931 Coastal Chart showing closeup of Punalu‘u Town-CS

Ninole Pond-1954-1972-Kelly-Cultural Surveys

Fern Forest Road to the volcano from Punaluu, Hawaii Island-PP-28-13-008

Andrews Chart of Punalu‘u Roadstead c. 1880s showing restaurant, store and store-CS

Punaluu_Ahupuaa-DAGS_2402-1875

May 24, 2015 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

Waikiki

Waikiki was once a vast marshland whose boundaries encompassed more than 2,000-acres (as compared to its present 500-acres we call Waikiki, today.)

Originally, the ahupuaʻa of Waikiki included all the valleys “from the west side of Makiki valley away to the east side of Wailupe”.

The name Waikiki (which means “spouting waters”) was well adapted to the character of the swampy land of ancient Waikiki, where water from the upland valleys would gush forth from underground.

The early Hawaiian settlers gradually transformed the marsh into hundreds of taro fields, fish ponds and gardens. Waikiki was once one of the most productive agricultural areas in old Hawai‘i.

From ancient times, Waikiki has been a popular surfing spot. This is one of the reasons why the chiefs of old make their homes and headquarters in Waikiki for hundreds of years.

Waikiki, by the time of the arrival of Europeans in the Hawaiian Islands during the late eighteenth century, had long been a center of population Royal Center on O‘ahu. Kamehameha’s decision to reside there after taking control of O‘ahu by defeating the island’s chief, Kalanikūpule.

However, drainage problems started to develop in Waikiki from the late-nineteenth century because of urbanization, when roads were built and expanded in the area (thereby blocking runoff) and when a drainage system for land from Punchbowl to Makiki diverted surface water to Waikiki.

The dredging of the Ala Wai Canal (which became a demarcation of what we call Waikiki today) and the filling of the Waikiki wetlands spurred a building boom in the district. Hundreds of residential lots were created; then, many of the properties were consolidated into resort use.

Waikiki is now most often defined as the area bounded on the north and west by the Ala Wai canal from Kapahulu Avenue to the Ocean (including the Ala Wai Boat Harbor), on the east by Kapahulu Avenue and on the south by the ocean shoreline.

Today, tourism is the largest single source of private capital into Hawai‘i. Tourism is Hawaiʻi’s biggest generator of jobs among the major economic sectors. Tourism contributes over $1-billion of total state tax revenue.

Oʻahu has roughly 50 percent of the State’s visitor unit inventory, the vast majority of them in Waikiki (nearly 78,000-units statewide; nearly 32,000-units in Waikiki.)

It has a dense collection of independent hotels, condominiums, time-shares, restaurants and nightclubs, shopping complexes, etc and attracts and accommodates a range of types of visitor, from high-spending to the budget-conscious.

On any given day, there are as many as 127,000-people in Waikiki, making it a sizeable city by any account. This population includes 20,000-residents, 32,000-workers and 75,000-visitors.

While the city government provides the general public services and infrastructure for this city within a city, many businesses and residents also contribute to its betterment through various resort and visitor-related associations.

The visitor industry is more than hotels, visitor attractions and airlines. A successful tourism industry requires the collaboration of businesses, government and others, all working together toward common goals that contribute to the greater good.

Today, Waikiki is the primary visitor destination, and hotel and resort area not just for Oʻahu, but also for all of Hawaiʻi. It is a gathering place for residents and visitors from around the world.

Famous for its beaches, every room is just two or three blocks away from the beach and surf. But there’s more to Waikiki than just the beach. Nearby (walkable) attractions of Waikiki include the Honolulu Zoo and the Waikiki Aquarium, and for the adventuresome, Lēʻahi (Diamond Head) is a short walk that leads to a trail offering panoramic views of Waikiki.

In addition, Waikiki is within a half hour of a variety of Oʻahu attractions, including Pearl Harbor, ʻIolani Palace, the Nuʻuanu Pali Lookout and Hanauma Bay.

While Waikiki is considered “built-out,” recent revitalization activities, including multi-million dollars of expenditures for a new sidewalk promenade with landscaping and fountains and numerous other improvements, have added freshness and convenience to the Waikiki experience.

One of Waikiki’s new and signature attractions is the tradition of torch-lighting ceremonies that occurs most evenings throughout Waikiki.

Likewise, a recent sand replenishment project expanded the beach in the core of Waikiki. Other landscaping and sidewalk improvements added convenience and safety, while also enhancing a rejuvenated feel.

Long been cultivated in the minds of worldwide visitors as a destination of exotic allure and Aloha spirit, Waikiki is a unique mix of ancient tradition, history, beautiful land, breathtaking seascapes and a blend of strong cultures—the backdrop that has framed the world-renowned beach as one of the premier tourist destinations on the planet.

More of an experience than a destination, Waikiki provides residents and visitors with a unique experience found only on its shores, to take and keep with them wherever they are. Waikiki is poised to stand the test of time as one of the most iconic beach locations in the world.

We prepared a corridor management plan for the Waikiki – Kauhale O Hoʻokipa Scenic Byway for the Native Hawaiian Hospitality Association. We were honored and proud when the Scenic Byway received a Historic Preservation Commendation from Historic Hawaiʻi Foundation.

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