What to See in Lanai - Top Sights and Attractions

Kaunolū Village Site is located on the south coast of the island of Lānaʻi. This former fishing village, abandoned in the 1880s, is the largest surviving ruins of a prehistoric Hawaiian village. The archaeological site is very well preserved and covers almost every phase of Hawaiian culture. It was designated a U.S. National Historic Landmark in 1962 and added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1966.

The site consists of two historical villages straddling Kaunolū Gulch, a dry stream bed subject to occasional flash floods after rainstorms at higher elevations. The village on the western side was named Kaunolū; the one on the eastern side was called Keāliakapu. The land is parched, with little fresh water, but the sheltered bay at the end of the gulch offers access to rich fishing in the deep seas below the high cliffs along the south coast of the island. Ancient Hawaiian bone lures used to troll for pelagic fish were found in Ulaula Cave, a small lava tube near the village.

King Kamehameha I frequently enjoyed fishing here. His house platform lies directly across the gulch from Halulu Heiau, high on the edge of a cliff above the bay. Between 1778 and 1810, he is said to have held ceremonies at this heiau (probably a luakini war/sacrifice heiau). During the late 18th century, Maui high chief Kahekili, a rival of Kamehameha, also used to visit here. Near the heiau is a notch in the cliff called Kahekili's Leap, where he is said to have ordered his warriors to dive into the sea below to prove their courage.^[1]

Island in Maui County, Hawaii. Puʻupehe Platform, also known Puʻu Pehe and in tourist literature as Sweetheart Rock, is a triangular sea stack 150 feet off the peninsula separating Mānele Bay and Hulopoʻe Bay on the island of Lānaʻi, Hawaiʻi.

Both its Hawaiian and its English name allude to a legend about Pehe, the beautiful daughter of a local chief, whose jealous husband, Makakehau ('Misty Eyes' clouded by her beauty), confined her to a nearby cave facing the open ocean. When a storm arose while he was away fetching fresh water for her, high seas flooded the cave and drowned her before he could return to rescue her. In his grief, he is said to have hauled her body to the top of the rock, where he entombed her before leaping to his own death. However, when the archaeologist Kenneth Emory investigated the "tomb" in detail in 1921, he found no human bones, only those of sea birds, leading him to conclude that the carefully arranged stones were an altar built by either bird hunters or fishermen.

Since 1976, Puʻu Pehe has marked the boundary between two subzones of the 309-acre Mānele-Hulopoʻe Marine Life Conservation District designated by the State of Hawaii Division of Aquatic Resources. Subzone B includes Mānele Bay boat harbor, while Subzone A includes Hulopoʻe Bay, where no motorized vessels are permitted. Both zones contain clear waters and extensive coral reefs that provide excellent snorkeling and Scuba-diving opportunities.

The land surrounding the two bays contains many remnants of earlier Native Hawaiian village sites, whose inhabitants subsisted on dryland farming and offshore fishing. About 28 acres of former Kapihaʻā village on the rocky shores of Hulopoʻe Bay below the Mānele Bay Resort golf clubhouse have been preserved and marked with interpretative signs along a trail. The remnants of the village include house platforms, garden terracing, stone tool work sites, a heiau, and a fishing shrine (koʻa).^[3]