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Na Pali Coast Ohana
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News & Events

Total rain in Nuʻalolo Kai for 2024 as of 2024-09-27: 21.28 inches
View all the Nuʻalolo Kai rain data
Rain gauge readings courtesy: Capt. Ted of Capt. Andy's Rafting Nāpali Day Expedition





Nā Pali Coast ʻOhana Presentation at Hanapepe Public Library - 2013-11-07

Produced by Jennifer & Serge Marcil - 4D Media

Sabra Kauka, President & Narrator
Culture-History-Ancestors

Alan Carpenter, Archaeologist
History and early facts about Nuʻalolo Kai

Victoria Wichman, Archaeologist
History and current preservation
Time line of recent reconstruction

Michael DeMotta
Assistant Director of Living Collections and Horticulture
Native Hawaiian plant restoration

Kelvin & Kathleen Ho, Educators
Culture, youth evolvement




$2,500 donation from the Rapozo Kamaʻāina Fund at the Hawai'i Community Foundation

May 11, 2011
Donation was received from the Rapozo Kamaʻaina Fund at the Hawai'i Community Foundation. Wayne Rapozo, a Kauaʻi native and a partner in a London law firm, visited with the ʻOhana last summer in Nuʻalolo Kai and was very impressed by the work the ʻOhana is performing there.



Society for Hawaiian Archaeology - Hawaiʻi Cultural Stewardship Award

Friday, 15 October 2010
Hawaiʻi Cultural Stewardship Award presented by SHA and Nākiʻi Ke Aho to Nā Pali Coast ʻOhana

The Hawaiʻi Cultural Stewardship Award celebrates the outstanding efforts of individuals and organizations who work to advance the preservation and perpetuation of Hawaiʻi's cultural resources through responsible management, stewardship, and/or education efforts at the grassroots level. With this award, the Society for Hawaiian Archaeology and Nākiʻi Ke Aho acknowledge the profound importance of engaging with such individuals and groups, and honoring their legacies and achievements.

Nākiʻi Ke Aho is an organization of Native Hawaiians and kamaʻāina who accept, honor, and appreciate their kuleana of ensuring the safety and integrity of Hawaiʻi's wahi kūpuna. Nākiʻi Ke Aho's vision is for Native Hawaiians to care for and experience wahi kūpuna in ways that engage and sustain Hawaiian practices, traditions, and moʻolelo.



HISTORIC HAWAIʻI FOUNDATION LAUDS PRESERVATION EFFORTS


Restoration of Nuʻalolo Kai historic sites, the rehabilitation of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, the renovation of Bishop Museum's Hawaiian Hall and the adaptive reuse of the Kakaʻako Fire Station among 16 projects awarded preservation honors by Historic Hawaii Foundation.

February 20, 2009 (Honolulu): The restoration of Nuʻalolo Kai historic sites, the rehabilitation of the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, the renovation of Bishop Museums Hawaiian Hall and the adaptive reuse of the Kakaʻako Fire Station are among the projects that were recognized at Historic Hawaiʻi Foundations 2009 Preservation Honor Awards ceremony on March 24.

The awards have been presented annually since 1975 and are Hawaiis highest recognition of preservation projects that perpetuate, rehabilitate, restore or interpret the states architectural, archaeological and/or cultural heritage.

The preservation projects being recognized this year include examples of the breadth of Hawaiʻi's cultural and architectural legacy, said Kiersten Faulkner, executive director of Historic Hawaiʻi Foundation.

2009 Preservation Awards
For a specific project that preserved, rehabilitated, or restored a historic building, object, site or district: Nā Pali Coast ʻOhana and Hawaiʻi State Parks Division for restoring Nuʻalolo Kai historic sites and cultural landscape through collaborative efforts involving the cooperation of a state agency, non-profit organization and Hawaiʻi cultural practitioners (Nāpali Coast, Kauaʻi);



Working Ladies

left to right: Sabra Kauka-President, Noweo Kai-Botanist, Nica Pyron-Botanist, Victoria Wichman-Archaeologist. 2006 Nā Pali Coast ʻOhana work trip.

Plants of Nuʻalolo Kai, 2006 Botanical Survey, Fred F. Nakaguma (slideshow)


Fred F.Nakaguma-Botanist/Science Teacher
“Very noticeable was the lack of plants you normally find on the beaches. The only plants found were Scaevola taccada (naupaka kahakai) and Vitex rotundifolia (pohinahina). There were only two places that S. taccada were found, at the boat landing and high on the east cliff. Missing were the normal beach plants Ipomoea pes-caprae (pohuehue) and Jacquemonita ovalifolia (paʻuohiʻiaka). Boerhavia glabrata (alena) also was not found. Only Vitex rotundifolia (pohinahina) was doing well.”

Checklist of plants occurring in Nuʻalolo Kai, September 2006 (pdf)



List of birds and mammals occurring in Nuʻalolo Kai

National Geographic Magazine (video)
“Sabra...is also involved in maintaining, preserving and bringing back to life traditional sites where people used to live...” From the movie Hawaiʻi: Preserving the Breath at nationalgeographic.com featuring Nā Pali Coast ʻOhana president, Sabra Kauka.

National Geographic Magazine (April 2008) feature article about the Nāpali Coast with interviews of Alan Carpenter, Randy Wichman, and Sabra Kauka.

Donna Kahakui Visits Nuʻalolo Kai

Saturday, June 5, 2004 is a day that will be long remembered by the Nā Pali Coast ʻOhana. That's the day that Donna Kahakui visited Nuʻalolo Kai to honor her Hawaiian heritage and celebrate the progress of our volunteer work.

Solo canoe paddler Kahakui, a long distance competitor since 1998, successfully completed a five-day, 200-mile voyage to promote awareness of the critical need for protecting the ocean environment. She stroked her one-person outrigger canoe from Oʻahu to Nāwiliwili on Kauaʻi, escorted by fellow paddlers and support vessels. After a brief stop at Kalihi Wai to commemorate the life of Konohiki Johnny Akana, Donna and her expanded flotilla continued up the east coast to Nāpali.

Greeted from afar by the resounding kani ka pu, the helmet shell trumpet, Kahakui was welcomed ashore at Nuʻalolo Kai with appropriate chants and traditional protocol. She spent several hours touring the house sites and ceremonial structures, paying respects at sacred places with Sabra Kauka, Kaiʻopua Fyfe and Keao Nesmith. Before departing, surrounded by well-wishers, Kahakui took a few moments to gather her strength and focus her energies. View our slide show for a pictorial review.

Kahakui and her ocean-going companions braved high winds and seas navigating north and west approaching Niʻihau before making their final landfall on Kauaʻi's south shore.

Kahakui heads Kai Makana, a nonprofit organization that encourages people to preserve and protect the ocean and its resources. For more information about Donna's work, write Kai Makana at P.O. Box 22719, Honolulu, HI 96823, call (808)261-8939 or visit www.kaimakana.org.

Nu‘alolo Kai Reef Algal Survey and Well Algal Growth, September 2006
Nica Pyron's survey of the reef.

More Budget Cuts to State Parks
What is the future budget of the State Parks to be under our new Governor Linda Lingle? She has been quoted as saying she supports a strong parks program, yet in this article that appeared in Kauaʻi's Garden Island newspaper on Feb 5, 2003, proposed budget cuts will devastate an already cut to the bone parks maintenance program.

Hawaiʻi Lawmakers Debate State's Responsibility on Dangerous Land
Hawaiʻi's hiking trails lead to the scenic beauty of the islands' lush volcanic mountains, but some of those same trails also are risk of rockfalls and landslides that could lead to injuries and deaths.



Hawaiian Fishhook Classification, Identification, and Analysis, Nuʻalolo Kai (Site 50-30-01-196), Kauaʻi
SHA Special Publication No. 2 Na Mea Kahiko o Kauaʻi: Archaeological Studies in Kauaʻi

Michael W. Graves and Windy McElroy, Edited by Mike T. Carson and Michael W. Graves

For the past decade, researchers at the University of Hawaiʻi have examined the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum's collection of artifacts excavated from the site of Nuʻalolo Kai on the Nā Pali coast of Kauaʻi (Figure 1). This site complex, located adjacent to the cliff on the north side of the valley, was first identified by Bennett (1931:148-150) during his archaeological survey of Kauaʻi. The Bishop Museum organized an expedition to the site in the late 1950s, mapping it in detail (Figure 2) and conducting extensive excavations (Soehren and Kikuchi n.d.). The objective was to sample a series of potentially deep and well preserved archaeological deposits in order to understand the settlement and subsequent development of Hawaiian culture. By all measures, Nuʻalolo Kai fits this description, with cultural deposits in some features more than 2 m deep. Chronometric dating (see Kirch 1985:100) and the presence of Euroamerican artifacts suggest the site was continuously occupied for as many as five or six centuries from ca. AD 1200 to 1300 through the first half of the 19th century. An incredible range of organic and inorganic objects has been preserved at the site. This article describes the assemblage of fishhooks from Nuʻalolo Kai, with particular attention to: a) developing a classification of head and shank morphology; b) reliably identifying the attributes associated with the classification; and c) describing some of the patterns of variation in head shank morphology that are evident at the site ...

Updated: 2021-02-26T10:13:35-1000 (HST)