Lanikai Beach is located in Lanikai, a
neighborhood within Kailua, on the windward coast
of Oahu,
Hawaii. This small 0.5 mile beach has been constantly ranked among the best
beaches in the world.
Adjacent to Lanikai Beach is a primarily upper-class residential area, because
of this it is only accessible through public beach access
paths. Although the beach itself is public property, it is not state land
and is not a county beach park like many beaches in Hawaii. There is no public
parking lot and the area lacks facilities like restrooms, showers or lifeguards.
During the weekdays the beach
is relatively empty, but on weekends during peak tourist season it can become
extremely crowded. Lanikai is a popular spot for photo
shoots as renowned models and photographers frequent the place on nice
days. Due to its position on the east side of the island, Lanikai is recognized
as being great place to watch the moonrise over the Mokuluas, especially during
the full
moon
Oʻahu (pronounced [oˈʔɐhu])
or Oahu /oʊˈɑːhuː/, known as "The Gathering Place", is the third
largest of the Hawaiian Islands and the most populous of the
islands in the U.S. state of Hawaii. The state
capital, Honolulu,
is on Oʻahu's southeast coast. Including small
close-in offshore islands such as Ford Island
and the islands in Kaneohe Bay and off the eastern (windward) coast, it has a total land area of
596.7 square miles (1,545.4 km2), making it the 20th largest island in the
United States. In
the greatest dimension, this volcanic island is 44 miles (71 km) long and
30 miles (48 km) across. The length of the shoreline is 227 miles
(365 km). The island is the result of two separate shield
volcanoes: Waiʻanae and Koʻolau, with a broad "valley" or saddle (the
central Oʻahu Plain) between them. The highest point
is Mt.
Ka'ala in the Waiʻanae Range, rising to 4,003
feet (1,220 m) above sea level
History
The old Kingdom of Oʻahu was once
ruled by the most ancient Aliʻi in all of the Hawaiian Islands. The first great king of
Oʻahu was Mailikukahi, the law maker, who
was followed by many generation of monarchs. Kualii was the first of the warlike
kings and so were his sons. In 1773, the throne fell upon Kahahana, the son of Elani of Ewa. In 1783 Kahekili II,
King of Maui, conquered Oʻahu and deposed the reigning family and then made his
son Kalanikupule
king of Oʻahu.
Kamehameha the Great would conquer in the mountain
Kalanikupule's force in the Battle of Nuʻuanu. Kamehameha founded the Kingdom
of Hawaiʻi with the conquest of Oʻahu in 1795. Hawaiʻi would not be unified
until the islands of Kauaʻi
and Niʻihau
surrendered under King Kaumualii in 1810. Kamehameha
III moved his capital from Lāhainā,
on Maui to Honolulu, Oʻahu
in 1845. ʻIolani Palace, built later by other members of the
royal family, is still standing, and is the only royal palace on American soil.
Oʻahu was apparently the first of
the Hawaiian Islands sighted by the crew of HMS Resolution on January 18, 1778
during Captain James Cook's third Pacific expedition. Escorted by HMS Discovery, the expedition was
surprised to find high islands this far north in the central Pacific. Oʻahu was
not actually visited by Europeans until February 28, 1779 when Captain Charles
Clerke aboard HMS Resolution stepped ashore at Waimea Bay. Clerke had taken command of the ship
after Capt. Cook was killed at Kealakekua
Bay (island of Hawaiʻi) on February 14, and was leaving
the islands for the North Pacific.
The opening battle of World War
II in the Pacific for the United States was the Imperial Japanese Navy attack on Pearl Harbor, Oʻahu on the morning
of December 7, 1941. The surprise attack was aimed at the Pacific Fleet of the United States Navy and its defending Army Air Corps and Marine Air Forces. The attack
damaged or destroyed twelve American warships, destroyed 188 aircraft, and
resulted in the deaths of 2,403 American servicemen and 68 civilians (of those,
1,177 were the result of the destruction of the USS Arizona alone).
Today, Oʻahu has become a tourism
and shopping haven. Over five million visitors (mainly from the American
mainland and Japan)
flock there every year to enjoy the quintessential island holiday experience.
An earthquake, measuring 6.7 on the Richter
scale, struck the Island Of Hawai'i and the surrounding islands at 07:07:49
HST on October 15, 2006, causing
an island-wide power outage and over $200 million in damage.
Introduction
The island is home to about 953,207
people (approximately 75% of the resident population of the state, with
approximately 75% of those living on the "city" side of the island).
Oʻahu has for a long time been known as "The Gathering Place". However,
the term Oʻahu has no confirmed meaning in Hawaiian,
other than that of the place itself. Ancient
Hawaiian tradition attributes the name's origin in the legend of Hawaiʻiloa,
the Polynesian
navigator credited with discovery of the Hawaiian Islands. The story relates
that he named the island after a son.
Residents of Oʻahu refer to themselves
as "locals" (as done throughout Hawaiʻi), no matter their ancestry.
The city of Honolulu—largest
city, state capital, and main deepwater marine port for the State of
Hawaiʻi—is located here. As a jurisdictional unit, the entire island of Oʻahu
is in the City & County of Honolulu,
although as a place name, Honolulu occupies only a portion of the southeast end
of the island.
Well-known features found on Oʻahu
include Waikīkī,
Pearl
Harbor, Diamond Head, Hanauma Bay,
Kāneʻohe
Bay, Kailua Bay, North Shore.
Being roughly diamond-shaped,
surrounded by ocean and divided by mountain ranges, directions on Oʻahu are not
generally described with the compass directions found throughout the world.
Locals instead use "ewa" (pronounced "eh-va") to
mean toward the western tip of the island, "Diamond Head" to
be toward the eastern tip, "mauka" is toward the mountains and
"makai" toward the sea.
Locals consider the island to be
divided into various areas, which may overlap. The most commonly accepted areas
are the "City", "Town" or "Town side", which is
the metropolitan area from Halawa to the area below Diamond Head (residents of
the island north of the Koʻolau
Mountains consider the Town Side to be the entire southern half);
"West Oʻahu," which goes from Pearl Harbor to Kapolei and Ewa and may include the Makaha and Waianae areas;
the "North Shore" (northwestern coast); the
"Windward Side" (northeastern coast); the
"East Side" (the eastern portion of the island, including both the
Windward Side and the area east of Diamond Head; and "The Valley" or
"Central Oʻahu" which runs northeast from Pearl Harbor toward
Haleiwa. These terms are somewhat flexible, depending on the area in which the
user lives, and are used in a mostly general way.
