Kiahuna Plantation Resort

Kiahuna Plantation Resort, in Poipu, is built on the grounds of what used to be the plantation manager's estate for Hawaii's first sugar plantation, Koloa Plantation. The historic manor house, dating back to the early 1930's, now houses the resort's front office and Plantation Gardens restaurant.

The plantation manor was originally a wedding gift to Alexandra "Sandie" Knudsen and Hector Moir who moved into the manor house shortly after their wedding in 1930. Hector was employed by Koloa Sugar Company, and in 1933 became Manager of the company, the oldest sugar plantation in the Territory of Hawaii.

The manor house was the hub of plantation society on Kauai's south shore. The house comfortably held 150 guests and the Moirs hosted numerous elegant social gatherings where the men wore coats and ties and the ladies dressed in evening gowns.

Sandie Moir started the now-famous gardens as a hobby. The home and gardens were named Pa'u a Laka or “skirt of Laka,” after the Hawaiian goddess of hula and the early Hawaiian name for the area. Legend says a sacred hula-training temple was located in the area. Along the paths are magnificent lava rock arrangements. Some of the rock piles are exactly as the ancient Hawaiians left them. Throughout the years, she added rare and exotic cactus, succulents, trees such as coconut, wiliwili, and kou, and a section for orchids and bromeliads. The garden was lovingly landscaped with lily ponds, cascading pools and lava rock.

By 1948, the garden had drawn international attention and was classified as "one of the ten best cactus and succulent gardens in the world," By the mid-1960's thousands of people a year were visiting the "Pa'u a Laka Garden." 

In 1968, the Moirs retired from their "garden operations," moving stateside, and leasing the manor house and land to a mainland corporation. Eventually Kiahuna Plantation Resort was built on the land surrounding the manor house and garden.