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Kaiaka Bay Beach Park,  North Shore, Oahu

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Introduction

Kaiaka Bay Beach Park, a large 53-acre park, is on the north point of Kaiaka Bay. Prior to its conversion to a beach park, the property was the site of Fresh Air Camp, a facility established by James Rath in 1915 as part of his program for underpriviledged children at Palama Settlement in Honolulu. Rath took the children on camping trips and in 1915 leased a permanent campsite at Kaiaka Bay. When the camp was not in use by Palama Settlement, Rath rented it to the community for picnics and parties. The Waialua Sugar Company baseball team used the camp’s athletic field as their home field for many years.

Kaiaka Bay Beach Park is the site of a legendary pedestal, or balancing, rock called Pohaku o Lana’i, which was said to have floated ashore from the distant land of Kahiki. A large limestone formation, Pohaku o Lana’i, stands alone near the edge of the bay. In their Journal of Voyages and Travels Between the Year 1821 and 1829, Reverend Daniel Tyerman and George Bennet described it as follows:

“Continuing our circuminsular tour we crossed a spacious plain, on the coast, of which the base was coral and the soil a thin layer of vegetable mould. On this level stands a mound, which might be taken for an artificial monument, consisting of two prodigious masses of coral rock. It was recently a marae, to which the kings and chiefs repaired to consult Tani, who was worshipped at it, on questions of war and peace, and to pray that in battle their bodies might be rendered invulnerable to the spears of their enemies.”

On February 12, 1933, the Honolulu Advertiser added, “Pohaku Lanai has a variable history. Once it was very useful to fishermen as a watch-tower for the shoal fish, and also as a bell. When the kilo-ia, the fish-seer, had observed the shoal, he rang the bell by beating the rock with a wooden club, and the waiting fishermen foregathered for work with their nets and canoes.”

Kaiaka, or “shadowy sea,” is a small bay with a dark detrital sand beach, the result of soil runoff from Kaukonahua and Paukauila Streams, the two streams that empty into the bay. The beach and the bay are used primarily for fishing. Swimmers prefer the wide sand beach that lies outside of the bay on the north side of the point. The park is one of the access points for the surf sites known as Fresh Airs and Walls.

Public amenities: parking, restrooms, picnic tables, showers.

Ocean activities: fishing, surfing, swimming.

This description is taken from John R. K. Clarks book "Beaches of Oahu - Revised Edition" which is published by University of Hawai'i Press and available from amazon.com at this link. We thank John R. K. Clark for providing his description of Hawaii's beaches to improve beach safety.