Maha'ulepu

Ahhh... what a beautiful 5th day of July!! One of my most favorite beaches to go to has always been the lovely beach of Maha'ulepu. Located in the sometimes smothering and touristy Po'ipu on the south side of Kauai it is pristine and relatively untouched except for the dusty, rocky road that leads you out there. Kevin, Kassidy and I met up with our friends and their baby today for a day of fun in the sun, under a spf 50 sunshade, with the babes. The sky crisp, the clouds puffy, and those wonderful trade winds were perfectly distributing warmth from the sun and cool from the ocean. A fantastic post Independence Day celebration on a gorgeous stretch of Kauai coastline.
Today the Maha'ulepu area is owned by Grove Farm (which is owned by Stephen Case, co founder of AOL and encompasses approximately 40,000 acres, purchased in 2000), which if you spend anytime here on Kauai you are bound to see those green Grove Farm gates. For all you history buffs out there here is a brief run down of Grove Farm and the land: In 1850, after the Great Mahele, which was the act allowing non natives to purchase Hawaiian land, Warren Goodale is the first owner. Goodale sells the land to James Marshall for $3,000 who holds onto it until 1856 at which time he sells to Judge Herman Wideman for $8,000. In 1864 George N. Wilcox takes over the lease and will run Grove Farm successfully from 1870-1933. Grove Farm was synonomous with sugar cane and while sugar cane cultivation in Hawaii has ceased operations, Grove Farm has diversified into cattle ranching, as well as other agricultural endevours such as taro, trees, corn...The Grove Farm land has also been subject to land development and if you spend any time on the south side you will see tons of resorts, shopping centers (some not even finished being built), and restaurants.
So why give you all the above information when I am really trying to highlight the beauty of a beach?? Well because there are rumors that said beautiful beach may one day fall victim to the same sort of land development as its sister coastline just to the west. Which would be a shame as almost the entire landscape is a cemetary and precious to the ancestors of those buried there. Not only that but it is home to a blind cave spider that is on the federal endangered species list as well as where the endangered monk seal likes to snooze. There are petroglyphs and sacred heiau and every once in a while you can see a local throw net fishing. There are tidepools with marine life thriving and I hope to one day very soon be able to share with my daughter the uniqueness and beauty of this place where the ocean meets the sand. How is anybody to teach the up and coming generation respect and love for the land when there is a resort standing where a sacred heiau once stood, or where pua pilo once grew??
I encourage you to visit a wonderfully fantastic website www.malama-mahaulepu.org This website is dedicated to the preservation and education of the true value of this particular piece of land and all of its natural resources. I also encourage you to visit Maha'ulepu and see for yourself how truely wonderful this place is just the way it is, completely untouched.