The Hawai'i That Was: Have We Got Some Real Estate for You! Exploring Kaloko-Honokohau National Historical Park

A'a flow at Kaloko Honokohau National Historical Park

If this was a place where someone was trying to sell real estate, the owners would have to make sure that no pictures crept into the brochures. This could very well be one of the most unusual national parks in the entire national park system. Kaloko Honokohau National Historical Park is mostly a barren flow of rugged a'a basalt across the street from the Home Depot, Costco, and an industrial park in Kailua-Kona on the west shore of the Big Island of Hawai'i. It's essentially under the flight path for the Kona Airport, located just up the coast. At first glance, it looks like the kind of abandoned field that occurs on the edge of every town. But it's not.

Maybe this picture of Honokohau Beach sells the place a bit better?

It helps if one finds out "the rest of the story". The word ahupua'a refers to the land divisions that existed prior to European colonization of the Hawaiian Islands. These were the highly organized tracts of land that were given over to various clans and families, and which allowed the islands to support a population estimated at between 200,000 and 1,000,000 (the present population is about 1.4 million). The tracts of land sloped down from the summits of the volcanoes on the Big Island like the spokes on a wheel, leading to the coastline. Each division included a portion of coast as well as forest lands at the higher elevations. This arrangement provided access to a wide variety of resources.

Fish, salt, and coconut were traded uphill, while taro, breadfruit, and wood moved downhill. The production of fish was aided by the construction of fish ponds and fish traps, and several excellent examples are preserved at Kaloko-Honokohau. Kaloko Fishpond (above) has been reconstructed, and provides not only an interpretative site, but also a critical wetland habitat, an environment that has become increasingly rare in Hawai'i as developments overwhelm coastal areas.


I saw several kinds of birds during our visit, but the most special was the sighting of a Kolea, the Pacific Golden Plover. The Golden Plover is sometimes credited with allowing the Polynesians to discover the Hawaiian Islands. The birds migrate thousands of miles between South Pacific islands to Alaska. The Polynesians would have known they were headed north to some kind of landmass, which may have led to expeditions northward to find the new lands.

Several hundred people lived in this ahupua'a. It was important that they not only be able to access the highlands from their villages on the coast, but also adjacent ahupua'a, especially in times of invasion or danger. The park preserves several of these "highways", most notably a section of the Mamalahoa Trail, sometimes called the King's Highway. Although it was improved for horses in the late 1800s, parts of the trail are centuries old.

The first picture I put on this post is not much of a selling point about why one would want to visit this fascinating park (volcanologists excepted, of course). The coastal stretches of the park are in fact very scenic, and "sell" the place much better. The Ai'opio Fish Trap and Honokohau Beach at the south end of the park are especially pretty. There is a large sandy beach, along with the remains of the fish trap itself and an ancient heiau. When we visited, the small bay was full of Green Sea Turtles as well.

Kaloko Honokohau National Historical Park preserves a piece of the "Hawai'i That Was" that existed in the years prior to European contact. It's almost ironic that the park today, smack in the middle of an industrial area, is rebuilding the natural environment of Hawai'i that existed before the Polynesians arrived, even while preserving the memories and spirit of the Native Hawaiians.

The Hawai'i That Was: A Veritable Rainbow of Sand (and cute gratuitous sea turtles)

Lai'e Beach on the island of Oahu, with a coral beach sand stained by iron oxides

Sand is white or gray. If you live in Florida or some other low-lying coastline, the sand tends to be nearly pure quartz, leading to the white color. In California and other mountainous coasts, there are other minerals mixed with the quartz, leading to a grayer shade. But there is something different about sand on the Hawaiian Islands. There is hardly a trace of quartz to be found, so the sandy beaches are made of other things. As a result, beaches in Hawai'i can be red, white, yellow, gray, black...and green.

The ocean is relentless. Waves are generated in storms all over the Pacific Ocean basin, and the energy is expended against of the shores of the Hawaiian archipelago. Whatever is there is going to be disintegrated into small particles. Much of the time, two kinds of rock face the waves. Basalt lava flows, and coral reefs. Where does all the color come from?

Coral sand on the south shore of Kaua'i (can you see any camouflaged creatures?)

Corals can be colorful when alive, but bereft of living cells, the reef is usually white. The sand that results from waves pounding on the margins of the reefs is therefore usually white as well (Parrotfish also chew up the coral, making sand particles). Basalt is black, but the minerals that make up basalt are high in iron, so when the rocks weather, reddish iron oxides are produced that can stain the fragments of coral to produce reddish or yellowish sands, like those seen above, from the south shore of Kaua'i. 

Kalapana-area lava flow reaching the sea in 2009, from vents seven miles away at Pu'u O'o.

On the younger coastlines of the Big Island, sand forms in a different way. Lava flows reaching the shoreline can have explosive reactions when encountering the water. The lava shatters into small sand-sized particles, forming black sand beaches. Such beaches will disappear in time, and are thus uncommon. The most accessible beach is Punalu'u on the south side of the Big Island. We paid a visit during our recent exploration.

Punalu'u Beach is a pretty stretch of coast backed by coconut trees, with a seaward projection of lava provides some protection from the worst of the wave action. That makes it a great recreational beach, but also an excellent habitat for Green Sea Turtles (Chelonia myda).

The beach provides a resting area for the turtles, and the calm water just offshore provides extensive growths of algae that they prefer to feed on. They don't breed here, though. Most of the turtles in Hawai'i nest on the French Frigate Shoals several hundred miles to the northwest.

The turtles, honu to the native Hawaiians, were both revered but also used in a number of ways, for food, medicine, and tools. They were doing well enough until the Europeans arrived and started using them for food as well. Their population went into a steep decline until they gained legal protection in 1978. Their numbers have rebounded somewhat in the years since, although they are still considered endangered.

It's a serious thing that turtles and people share a popular beach. It's far to easy to harass and injure the slow moving turtles, and tourists can be real jerks at times. Volunteers are often around to protect the turtles and provide some education. If my pictures seem to have been taken from way too close, remember I have a zoom lens! I can be a jerk at times, but not with these beautiful creatures.

The most unique sand one can find in the Hawaiian Islands is the green kind. These sands are composed of olivine (also known as the gemstone peridot). Olivine is a major constituent of basalt all over the islands, but it weathers rapidly into iron oxide and clay under normal conditions. One can almost always find a few bits of olivine on any gray or black sand beach, but a green beach is a true rarity.

Papalokea Beach (also creatively known as Green Sand Beach) can be found a few miles northeast of South Point on the Big Island. Around 50,000 years ago, an eruption produced a cinder cone of loosely aggregated cinders and smaller fragments. It was rich in olivine crystals, and as waves attack the cliff, the small gems are released immediately onto the beach. There simply isn't enough time for them to weather away like they do elsewhere.

Most of my students made the five mile trek out and back to see the beach. I didn't make it this trip, but I did the hike in 2009 and got these pictures. Walking across a hot, windy, arid coastal plain might not sound like an exciting journey, but the destination is clearly spectacular, and the road passes numerous archaeological ruins. This empty coastline was home to many native Hawaiians who fished the waters offshore.

We had spent four days exploring Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park and the vicinity, but we were now headed around the island towards the Kona Coast and Kohala. We were about to see a completely different aspect of the Hawaiian Islands.

"The Hawai'i That Was" is an ongoing series that is exploring the Hawaiian Islands as they existed in the years prior to the arrival of humans on the island, and the changes that have occurred since then.