Manele Bay

Manele Bay Review

The ferries to and from Maui and Maalea pull in here. Public restrooms, a small café, water, and picnic tables make it a busy pit stop—you can watch the boating activity as you rest and refuel. The site of a Hawaiian village dating from AD 900, Manele Bay is flanked by lava cliffs hundreds of feet high. Though included in a Marine Life Conservation District, the completely rebuilt harbor is the island's only small boat harbor and was the location of most postcontact shipping until Kaumalapau Harbor was built in 1926. To get here from Lanai City, follow Highway 440 (Manele Road) 9 mi south to bottom of hill and look for a sign marking the harbor on your left. Just offshore to the west is Puu Pehe. Often called Sweetheart Rock, the isolated 80-foot-high islet carries a romantic Hawaiian legend that is probably not true. The rock is said to be named after Pehe, a woman so beautiful that her husband kept her hidden in a sea cave. One day, the surf surged into the cave and she drowned. Her grief-stricken husband buried her on the summit of this rock and then jumped to his own death. A more authentic story is that the enclosure on the summit is a shrine to birds, built by bird-catchers. Archaeological investigation has revealed that the enclosure was not a burial place. Protected shearwaters nest in the nearby sea cliffs from July through November.