Historians believe was first established during the fifthteen century. One of the Islands greatest rulers, King Kamehameha the Great, selected the Kaunolu Village as his retreat mainly because it was one of the most prized fishing sites on the island.



Highway number 440 out of Lanai City in the direction of Kaumalapau Harbour. You will pass the slip road to the airport; take the next left turning into Kaupili Road. After about two and a half miles you will find yourself face to face with a yellow standpipe. A road runs off to the right that will then take you down to the village.

An interesting and revealing hike has been developed by the Bishop Museum that provides interested visitors with information about Lanais Kaunolu Village and the individual ruins that scatter the area. To date a number of specialists have uncovered the existence of more than one hundred homes, storage buildings and burial sites. This is enough historical evidence to have this attraction registered as a National Historical Landmark.

There are many theories that have sprung up around regarding the fishing village of Kaunolu. The main belief is that this was set to be the religious centre of Lanai. Although it appears dry and arid now, back then the Pacific was the life blood to the area, providing an abundance of food and evidence of a freshwater stream was found to run through the Kaunolu Gulch that is close to the village.

When visiting try not to disrupt any remaining foundations or walls. Rain makes the roads extremely slippery a dangerous so at times like these the village is best avoided. There are no facilities present, so bring a supply of eats and drinks.

The coastline is riddled with natural features called sea arches which were formed when hot lava cooling when it hit the ocean. The quick cooling unfortunately makes these formations very fragile and as result dangerous to walk on.

Lanais weather patterns, when you take into consideration its size, are quite diverse offering cool forested areas through to gleaming sun drenched coast lines. Lanai is the most secluded of the Hawaiian Islands and falls directly in the rain shadow of is sister island Maui, which greatly affects Lanai weather conditions. Rainfall only ever really occurs in the first three or four months of the year, making Lanai one of the driest of the islands, thus accounting for its sun baked colour. Lanai Weather conditions ever really see continuous showers being delivered to this little island. Weather conditions with regard to temperature are quite stable throughout the course of the whole year, averaging between 80 and 90 in the summer and only falling no lower than about 54 in the winter months.