| Feature: | Ahupuaa, cliff |
| Alternate spelling: | Ninao |
| Comments: | Identified as an ahupuaa on the circa-1880s Hawaiian Government Survey map of Kaupo. Historian Moses Manu uses the spelling "Niniao" in his history of Kihapiilani published in the newspaper Nupepa Kuokoa (March 1, 1884). U.S. Geological Survey maps refer to the eastern cliff of Manawainui Valley as Niniao Pali. Celebrated for its fields of grass in historical references, as in a obituary in October 1862: "Kuu kaikuaana mai ka po loloa o ka hooilo, mai ke kula pili holu o Niniau i ka makani." (My sister of the long nights of winter, of Niniau’s fields of pili grass rippling in the wind.) According to Kaupo native Daniel Kawaiaea, who grew up in Kaupo in the early 1900s: "In the olden days, Niniau didn’t have any trees like this. Would have nothing but grass. So beautiful. No trees at all. … You could see anybody walking across the grass field up there. Beautiful. And we had cow pastures down here. The cowboys used to round up cattles down here. We used to come down during school … hours, we used to come down and watch them brand cattle or marking the cattles, the ear … and branding the cattle. The name of the pen was called Niniau." |
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| Further reading: | Niniau ahupuaa (Ulukau.org) |