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orth of the landmark Pu‘u Keka‘a and around the necklace of bays of Chief Pi‘ilani (Na Hono-a-pi‘ilani) is Kapalua Resort. In old Hawai‘i, the area was identified by the names of its principal bays, Honokahua and Honolua, which saw the comings and goings of voyaging canoes and fleets of war canoes. In the 1890s, one of Maui’s first missionary sons inherited this land and purchased thousands of acres more to found what would become one of Hawai‘i’s largest corporations, Alexander & Baldwin. As the pineapple crops flourished, Baldwin’s Honolua Ranch grew, importing laborers from Asia and the Azores and building homes in camps, a company store and offices. Some buildings can still be seen around the resort today, including the landmark Honolua Store, built in 1929, which is still in operation. Perhaps Kapalua Resort’s most significant legacy is that of environmental conservation. When the resort was conceived in the late 1970s, owners Maui Land & Pineapple Company instituted conservation programs for a majority of their priceless landholdings: Honolua Bay and Mokulē‘ia Bay were designated a Marine Life Conservation District. On the mountainside, the Pu‘u Kukui Watershed Preserve is the largest privately owned nature preserve in the state and home to plant and animal species that exist nowhere else in the world. Through the centuries, Ka-‘anapali has been revered in legend and is an attractive landscape of natural beauty. This area, which encompasses Hanakao‘o (Canoe) Beach at the south end to Kahekili (Keka‘a) Beach in the north, has always beckoned people to explore long stretches of golden sand, cultivate fertile plains, and wonder at the peaks of Mauna Kahalawai. In ancient times Ka-‘anapali (then known as Keka‘a) was the site of a thriving fishing village, lush fields of taro, warrior training grounds and a fierce battle between two royal brothers. The resort area was steeped in legends, such as the feats of Maui, the demi-god and Pueo, the guardian owl. The lore from a 15th century high chief who ruled the community at Keka‘a and banished his mischievous son to the neighboring island of Lana‘i to tame its ghosts, to the feats of Kahekili, the Thunderer, a chief who excelled in the sport of cliff diving and was fearless. In modern times, before the development of Hawai‘i’s first master-planned resort, the area boasted a horse race track, and railroad tracks that led to a pier for shipping sugar cane. The early years of Ka-‘anapali Resort saw the establishment of a convenient airstrip, which guided visitors in prop planes right to their hotel’s front desk.
Photo Courtesy of Montage Kapalua Bay
Story by Karee Carlucci
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