Hawaii may be famous for its crystalline waters, multihued beaches, lush rainforests and Polynesian vibe, but its cowboy culture is not to be missed.
Heaps of delicious food and dancing usually translate to a luau in Hawaii, but on the Big Island, it can also mean the Paniolo Sunset BBQ dinner in the rolling green pastures of Waimea. The weekly dinner and dancing event at Kahua Ranch is inspired by the Hawaiian Islands’ long history of cattle ranching, which reaches all the way back to King Kamehameha I.
In an entertaining account from Big Island country singer Dave Toland, cattle arrived in the Hawaiian Islands as a gift to the king from British explorer Capt. George Vancouver in the late 1700s. That one bull and six cows grew to become a major industry out of Hawaii, which is historically better known for its sugar cane plantations.
“Paniolo” refers to cowboys in Hawaiian, and according to Toland, the word came from the interaction between Mexican vaqueros who arrived to assist the burgeoning industry and Hawaiians who did not yet know how to wrangle cattle.