Kaniakapūpū ("the singing of the land shells"), known formerly as Luakaha ("place of relaxation"), is the ruins of the former summer palace of King Kamehameha III and Queen Kalama on the island of Oahu in Hawaii.

Built in the 1840s, and situated in the cool uplands of the Nuʻuanu Valley, it served as the king and queen's summer retreat after the capital of the Kingdom of Hawaii moved from Lahaina to Honolulu in 1845.

It was famous for being the site of a grand luau attended by an estimated ten thousand guests during the 1847 Hawaiian Sovereignty Restoration Day celebration.

The name refers to the kāhuli (Oʻahu tree snails) which were once abundant in the area and, according to Hawaiian folklore, able to vocalize and sing sweet songs at night.

[2][3][4] Archaeologist Susan A. Lebo and anthropologist James M. Bayman, writing in 2001, claim that the name is a modern misnomer, possibly originating in the early 20th century.

[5] Moʻolelo (oral accounts) from this period associate the name with the remnants of a stone structure to the southeast of the house, believed to be a heiau (temple) dedicated to Lono, the Hawaiian god of fertility and healing.

[5][6] Kawaluna Heiau was associated with Kūaliʻi, the 16th-century aliʻi nui of Oahu, who asserted his control of the Kona district (the area encompassing much of modern Honolulu) after a ceremony at the temple.

[9] Luakaha ("place of relaxation")[10] was the name of the property during the king's lifetime, and originates from the name of the traditional ʻili kū (land division) of the ahupuaʻa of Honolulu, which encompassed a third of the forested upper slopes of Nuʻuanu Valley.

[5][11] Kamehameha III also allocated a nearby piece of land to his advisor and friend Keoni Ana, who built Hānaiakamalama to be near the king.

[17] On July 5, 1842, American missionary Amos Starr Cooke, the teacher of Royal School, wrote in his journal that Governor Kekūanaōʻa was in the process of building a "stone house" for the king in Luakaha.

[19] On Hawaiian Sovereignty Restoration Day (Lā Hoʻihoʻi Ea) in 1847, King Kamehameha III and Queen Kalama hosted a grand luau at the palace.

A small cottage build by an Englishman on the road a little before the King's house is reached, is still more insignificant, but if you pass to the rear of its garden you will see a seething fall cascading down from a height of more than 70 feet.

[9]Another account was written in 1908 by Gorham D. Gilman, a New England merchant who resided in Lahaina and Honolulu from 1840 to 1861: The last building in the valley after the foreign style is His Majesty's country seat, at which he spends considerable time during the summer.