Maniniholo Dry Cave located on
Kauai’s north shore is across from Ha’ena Beach Park. It’s easily accessible frm
the main highway but is at the bottom of a steep cliff that is about 300 yards
deep. With a high roof that lowers the further you go, you’ll see a small
opening. The interior was much larger in the past but as the years passed waves
carried sand that slowly filled it in.
The legend goes that there was a
head fishermen of the menehune, which was Kauai’s mythical little people, and
the cave is named after him because he was called Maniniholo. These little
people were said to have caught a lot of fish at Ha’ena. The legend says the
cave wasn’t always there, but instead that the little people, the menehune, dug
it to keep their fish in while they took some to the island’s interior to
prepare and eat. It says it was to stop akua (evil spirits) from eating them.
A lot of people won’t believe in
this Hawaiian legend anymore, but the alternative explanations is that the
ocean used to be higher and the cave was formed over a course of thousands of
years. The waves eroded the cliff at its base.