Waimea Hawaiian Church


Sunday’s Hawaiian-language mass at this simple low-slung church makes an interesting way to connect with local culture. Waimea’s first Christian missionaries arrived in 1820. This church is a century-old replica of one built by Reverend George Rowell in 1865, after a bitter theological dispute had obliged him to leave the nearby United Church of Christ.


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Nearby attractions

1. Hofgaard Park

0.07 MILES

This small grassy park at Waimea’s main intersection holds a statue of Captain Cook. Display panels explain local history.

2. Captain Cook Monument

0.08 MILES

A statue of Captain James Cook stands on Waimea’s central green space. When his ships Resolution and Discovery sailed into Waimea Bay in January 1778,…

3. Waimea Town Center

0.1 MILES

Waimea’s plantation-era core offers some interesting architecture. Take a short stroll to admire the neoclassical First Hawaiian Bank (1929), the art deco…

4. Waimea State Recreational Pier

0.15 MILES

Flecked with microscopic green crystals called olivine, this wide, dark-tinged beach stretches between two scenic rock outcroppings and is bisected by the…

5. Lucy Wright Park

0.22 MILES

It’s a telling reflection of how locals feel about Captain Cook that the beach where he first landed is named not for Cook but for Waimea’s first Native…

6. Captain Cook Landing Site

0.23 MILES

The precise spot where Captain Cook first set foot on Hawaiian soil being unknown, a large boulder near the mouth of Waimea River was arbitrarily chosen…

7. Waimea United Church of Christ

0.25 MILES

What’s now the Waimea United Church of Christ was originally erected in 1847 by Reverend George Rowell. Protestant missionaries had lived in Waimea for…

8. Waimea Sugar Mill

0.28 MILES

The evocative skeleton of this 19th-century sugar mill still looms over Waimea. Pumping out sugar from the Westside, it fueled Kaua‘i’s economy until 1945…