Kealakekua and the Uplands
The bay where Cook was killed, the cliff above it that held the bones of chiefs, and the wet Kona hills behind, where cacao grows.
Marine conservation district • Pali Kapu O Keoua • Kona uplands
Explore → Get Early AccessWhy Visit
Kealakekua is a marine life conservation district and the clearest water on this side of the island, with a cliff behind it that changes the light all afternoon. It is also where Captain Cook was killed in 1779, which is the fact everyone arrives with and the least interesting thing about the place.
A Little History
The cliff is Pali Kapu O Keoua, the sacred cliff of Keoua, and burial caves in its face held the bones of chiefs. Napoopoo at the south end of the bay has no sand: it is a shore of rounded lava boulders that move audibly in the surf.
Worth Knowing
The road climbs fast behind the bay into the Kona uplands, wet enough to grow cacao. Hawaii is the only state that grows it commercially. Koa, which grows nowhere else on earth, turns up at wood shows in Waimea as furniture worth more than a car.
The Bay
The cliff, the water, and the boulder shore at the south end.
The Uplands
What grows behind the bay, and what the island makes from it.
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- Drive down to Napoopoo and listen. The boulders move in the surf and it is the sound people remember
- Go up rather than back. The uplands road above the bay is greener than anything on the coast and ten minutes away
- Roadside stands sell cacao and macadamia up there. Worth stopping for the cacao, which almost nobody associates with the state
- The Cook monument across the bay is reached by boat or a hard hike, not by the road
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