Green mountains of Oahu
Text By
Matthew Dekneef
Images By
Christian Cook
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Travel in Tune

Kelly Boy DeLima, lead singer of Kapena.

Through sweet harmonies and picturesque lyrics, Kapena’s music is a guide to the islands one song and a time.

“It’s always a journey when we perform,” says Kelly Boy DeLima, the lead singer of Kapena. Performing weekly at House Without A Key, the popular Nā Hoku Hanohano Award-winning band transports listeners to various parts of the islands on a lyric and a melody. Mele (songs) are one of the most common ways that local musicians pay tribute to storied places in Hawaiian music. Just name a region of the islands and you could likely find a song written to honor it. We asked DeLima to reflect on his group’s songbook and share a few of his favorite compositions—and the inspiring places they’re about—for this scenic, sonic guide to O‘ahu.

Beautiful scenery of the mountains in Hawai‘i.

Kelly Boy DeLima is the lead singer of Kapena, which performs weekly at House Without a Key.

Hā‘iku, Kāne‘ohe

Located on the windward side, Ha‘ikū is a valley in Kāne‘ohe. DeLima’s daughter, Kalena, who is also a musician, wrote an original composition titled “Nani Wale Ha‘ikū,” which Kapena performs at Halekulani to introduce listeners to where the band is rooted. “In a nutshell, it talks about our home on the Ko‘olau Mountains,” DeLima says. “We like to share with them the story of where we’re from, the other side of the mountain.” The mele describes the area’s natural beauty and mentions place markers like the Mololani wind and Keahiakahoe, the legendary mountain peak that watches over the ahupua‘a (land division) of Kāne‘ohe. In this region, are storied places like He‘eia, one of the last remaining fishponds on the island, and Ahu o Laka, a sandbar in Kāne‘ohe Bay. Visitors can take snorkeling tours around the sandbar or appreciate its splendor from the shore. Before you go, pack a light, hooded jacket just in case. As the song says, Ha‘ikū is “pulupe i ka ua”—bedecked in rain.

Kahalu‘u, Waikāne

Just north of Kāne‘ohe Bay along Kamehameha Highway is Kahalu‘u, a rural oceanfront community. One of DeLima’s favorite songs to perform each week is “Ku‘u Home O Kahalu‘u,” written by musician Gerry Santos, because it harkens back to when he was a kid. “It’s our kuleana to share our mana‘o (thoughts) and what it is to grow up in an island, to be Hawaiian, and be brought up here,” he says. The lyrics do just that, painting scenes of catching ‘o‘opu in mountain streams and riding horseback around the Ko‘olau hills. “It is a song that we identity with, a place where we were raised,” he says, which is why Kapena performs at Kahalu‘u Elementary once a year for a fundraising event. “To me, the song embodies that whole vibe and mission of giving back to your community,” DeLima says. “A song can do that.”

Kapena’s songbook suggests travelers venture to the Windward Side to experience its majestic natural beauty.

Kaimana Hila (Diamond Head)

Before strumming up songs about Waikīkī, DeLima likes to share the Hawaiian names for Diamond Head, the volcanic cinder cone that is area’s most famous landmark. There is Lē‘ahi, its original Hawaiian name, which translates to the “brow of the ‘ahi,” said to describe the ridges on the crater’s rim that resemble the dorsal fin of yellow-tail tuna fish. Then there is Kaimana Hila, the Hawaiian transliteration for “Diamond Head.” Numerous mele invoke these terms, most famously “Leahi” by Mary Pula‘a Robins and John Noble and “Kaimana Hila” by composer Charles E. King. While some listeners may not understand a single word, the guests often approach the band to tell them how much they felt the music. “They feel the kaona,” DeLima says, or the meaning of the words. These Waikīkī songs relay the experience of gazing up at the grandeur of Diamond Head. To do this, DeLima suggests visitors take a stroll through Kap‘iolani Park, on the opposite end of Waikīkī, to get the best views. “It’s really tranquil there.”

Green mountains of Oahu

“Nani Wale Hā‘iku”

Words by Tiana Kuni — Music by Kapena Delima

Nani wale Ha‘ikū
Wehi i ka ua
‘O ka ua ‘Āpuakea
Ku‘u lei aloha

Pa ma ka makani
‘O Mololani
He wehi mau ia
No Keahiakahoe

Kilakila nā Ko‘olau
Kau mai i luna
Ua ola nei wahi
I loko (o) ke aloha

He mele he inoa
No ia home nani
‘O ka ua ‘Āpuakea
Ku‘u lei aloha

So beautiful is Ha‘ikū
Bedecked in the rain
The ‘Āpuakea rain
Is my beloved adornment

The Mololani wind
Blows forth
A perpetual adornment
For Keahiakahoe

Majestic are the Ko‘olau
Placed high above
May this place thrive
In love and warmth

Let the song be told
Of this beautiful home
The ‘Āpuakea rain
Is my beloved adornment

Text By
Matthew Dekneef
Images By
Christian Cook
Share:

Travel in Tune

Kelly Boy DeLima, lead singer of Kapena.

Through sweet harmonies and picturesque lyrics, Kapena’s music is a guide to the islands one song and a time.

“It’s always a journey when we perform,” says Kelly Boy DeLima, the lead singer of Kapena. Performing weekly at House Without A Key, the popular Nā Hoku Hanohano Award-winning band transports listeners to various parts of the islands on a lyric and a melody. Mele (songs) are one of the most common ways that local musicians pay tribute to storied places in Hawaiian music. Just name a region of the islands and you could likely find a song written to honor it. We asked DeLima to reflect on his group’s songbook and share a few of his favorite compositions—and the inspiring places they’re about—for this scenic, sonic guide to O‘ahu.

Beautiful scenery of the mountains in Hawai‘i.
Kelly Boy DeLima is the lead singer of Kapena, which performs weekly at House Without a Key.
Hā‘iku, Kāne‘ohe

Located on the windward side, Ha‘ikū is a valley in Kāne‘ohe. DeLima’s daughter, Kalena, who is also a musician, wrote an original composition titled “Nani Wale Ha‘ikū,” which Kapena performs at Halekulani to introduce listeners to where the band is rooted. “In a nutshell, it talks about our home on the Ko‘olau Mountains,” DeLima says. “We like to share with them the story of where we’re from, the other side of the mountain.” The mele describes the area’s natural beauty and mentions place markers like the Mololani wind and Keahiakahoe, the legendary mountain peak that watches over the ahupua‘a (land division) of Kāne‘ohe. In this region, are storied places like He‘eia, one of the last remaining fishponds on the island, and Ahu o Laka, a sandbar in Kāne‘ohe Bay. Visitors can take snorkeling tours around the sandbar or appreciate its splendor from the shore. Before you go, pack a light, hooded jacket just in case. As the song says, Ha‘ikū is “pulupe i ka ua”—bedecked in rain.

Kahalu‘u, Waikāne

Just north of Kāne‘ohe Bay along Kamehameha Highway is Kahalu‘u, a rural oceanfront community. One of DeLima’s favorite songs to perform each week is “Ku‘u Home O Kahalu‘u,” written by musician Gerry Santos, because it harkens back to when he was a kid. “It’s our kuleana to share our mana‘o (thoughts) and what it is to grow up in an island, to be Hawaiian, and be brought up here,” he says. The lyrics do just that, painting scenes of catching ‘o‘opu in mountain streams and riding horseback around the Ko‘olau hills. “It is a song that we identity with, a place where we were raised,” he says, which is why Kapena performs at Kahalu‘u Elementary once a year for a fundraising event. “To me, the song embodies that whole vibe and mission of giving back to your community,” DeLima says. “A song can do that.”

Kaimana Hila (Diamond Head)

Before strumming up songs about Waikīkī, DeLima likes to share the Hawaiian names for Diamond Head, the volcanic cinder cone that is area’s most famous landmark. There is Lē‘ahi, its original Hawaiian name, which translates to the “brow of the ‘ahi,” said to describe the ridges on the crater’s rim that resemble the dorsal fin of yellow-tail tuna fish. Then there is Kaimana Hila, the Hawaiian transliteration for “Diamond Head.” Numerous mele invoke these terms, most famously “Leahi” by Mary Pula‘a Robins and John Noble and “Kaimana Hila” by composer Charles E. King. While some listeners may not understand a single word, the guests often approach the band to tell them how much they felt the music. “They feel the kaona,” DeLima says, or the meaning of the words. These Waikīkī songs relay the experience of gazing up at the grandeur of Diamond Head. To do this, DeLima suggests visitors take a stroll through Kap‘iolani Park, on the opposite end of Waikīkī, to get the best views. “It’s really tranquil there.”

Kapena’s songbook suggests travelers venture to the Windward Side to experience its majestic natural beauty.
Green mountains of Oahu

“Nani Wale Hā‘iku”

Words by Tiana Kuni — Music by Kapena Delima

Nani wale Ha‘ikū
Wehi i ka ua
‘O ka ua ‘Āpuakea
Ku‘u lei aloha

Pa ma ka makani
‘O Mololani
He wehi mau ia
No Keahiakahoe

Kilakila nā Ko‘olau
Kau mai i luna
Ua ola nei wahi
I loko (o) ke aloha

He mele he inoa
No ia home nani
‘O ka ua ‘Āpuakea
Ku‘u lei aloha

English Translation

So beautiful is Ha‘ikū
Bedecked in the rain
The ‘Āpuakea rain
Is my beloved adornment

The Mololani wind
Blows forth
A perpetual adornment
For Keahiakahoe

Majestic are the Ko‘olau
Placed high above
May this place thrive
In love and warmth

Let the song be told
Of this beautiful home
The ‘Āpuakea rain
Is my beloved adornment

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