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Cellpic Sunday—The Kuki‘i Point Lighthouse

Kuki‘i Point Lighthouse

May 2025.
Lihue, Kaua‘i, Hawaii.

During an afternoon visit to Duke’s Restaurant and the Portofino Café in Lihue, I was looking out at the beach when something at the mouth of Nāwiliwili Bay caught my eye. I zoomed in with my phone to check—was that an actual lighthouse, or just a decorative structure on the shoreline?

View of Kalapaki Beach-1
Kalapakī Beach

From the restaurant pair’s beach deck, I didn’t see much activity on Kalapakī Beach despite the 82‑degree (28°C) temperature. Duke’s was already open, but Portofino had about four minutes until their evening opening. Guests from the nearby Royal Sonesta Kaua‘i Resort packed the lower-level bar beneath the deck, enjoying the shade and the quick walk to the shore. Even if you aren’t staying at the resort, both restaurants are open to the public—the real challenge is snagging a spot in the small public lot, though you can always opt for Duke’s valet.

Kuki'i Lighthouse view-1
View of the Lighthouse

It’s tough to spot the lighthouse in the wide-angle beach photo, so I cropped the image above for a closer look. Even with this view in the midday glare, I couldn’t tell if it was an active navigation aid or a historical reconstruction. As it turns out, Kuki‘i Point is a modern decorative beacon designed to resemble a traditional Hawaiian coastal light. While it marks the entrance to Nāwiliwili Harbor, it isn’t maintained as a primary federal aid.

This Cellpic Sunday is just the first half of the story. Consider this a teaser for a lighthouse double-feature coming up later this week, where I’ll share a closer look at both of Lihue’s coastal lights: Kuki‘i Point and Ninini Point.

About the photos: These images were captured on two different days—the first during our afternoon at Duke’s, and the second when we returned to Portofino for dinner. You can read about those visits here. Both were taken as JPG snapshots on my Samsung S23 Ultra, pre-processed in Adobe Lightroom Classic, and finished in Luminar Neo. For the tight view of Kuki’i Point, I cropped a duplicate of the beach photo and used Neo’s Upscale module to boost the resolution. You can view both images in 2K HD on my Flickr gallery here.

I invite fellow bloggers to join in by creating their own Cellpic Sunday posts. There’s no set theme. The first rule is that your photo must be captured with a cell phone, iPad, or other mobile device. The second rule is simple: link your challenge response to this post or drop a comment here with your link so others can find it. And remember, despite the name, there’s no penalty for sharing on a day other than Sunday.

John Steiner.

29 comments

  9. That zoom-in-from-the-restaurant-deck moment is so relatable — half the fun of travel is chasing down those ‘wait, what IS that?’ details. Funny that Kukiʻi turned out to be decorative rather than a working light; we’ve squinted at plenty of mystery structures across a bay ourselves. Looking forward to the Ninini Point follow-up!

    Reply

    • Thanks. I know so many lighthouses are no longer commissioned as navigation aids since the development of GPS, but they are fun to see. Though small, this lighthouse is listed as a navigation aid in the Coast Guard registry as a minor light, it’s just not a primary navigational aid. In U.S. Coast Guard terminology, a minor light is an active, charted aid used for harbor entrances, channels, and local navigation—not a major seacoast light with long‑range visibility.

      Reply

  10. Good eyes, John! What a lovely place to watch the world go by! Great job on the cropped image of the lighthouse–not fuzzy at all. Of the few lighthouses I have managed to visit, while they do the same job of navigation, they all look a bit different in style. My Sunday Stills post publishes at 7:30. Thanks for hosting!

    Reply

  14. Hi John
    Lighthouses have a special magic for us. We have quite a few books about lighthouses in our library, and we have visited a lot of lighthouses, especially in Scotland and New England.
    The Fab Four of Cley
    🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

    Reply

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