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| Angelika/Mike Schilli |
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Michael Vacationing on Hawaii every year, doesn't that get boring at some point? For us, not really, because even after about 15 trips, we still haven't explored every corner. Although we have now been to each of the seven publicly accessible islands of the archipelago at least once, and in recent years we've only been hanging out on the main island of Oahu, we still haven't explored everything there.
One of these white spots on our map was previously the northwestern tip of the island. You first drive through the slightly rustic town of Waianae, then continue north, past some settlements of local beach bums, to the somewhat secluded, mainly frequented by locals, but breathtaking Keawaula Beach, until the coastal road abruptly ends and only a rocky, winding path leads into a nature reserve.
Travel guides can't stop going on about how cars are being broken into left and right there, but that's totally laughable, especially if you're from San Francisco, the world capital of petty criminals. You just don't leave anything in the car, and then no one will break into it —- problem solved.
In the first few hundred yards on the winding coastal path, we also saw a few parked off-road pickup trucks, whose owners had descended the narrow trails down the cliffs to go fishing. There was also a car that appeared to have veered off the path and crashed onto the rocks by the water.
After about half a mile, due to a broken off section, the path can only be continued on foot, and after another mile, the astonished hiker encounters a gigantic fence, which apparently has been erected by nature enthusiasts for the purpose of protecting albatrosses, an endangered bird species, from their natural enemies, some type of weasel.
In the breeding grounds of the albatrosses, we actually saw a surprisingly large juvenile albatros sitting in a nest on the grass, similar to the young adults nowadays called "Millennials," who, due to laziness and lack of income, still live with their mothers at the age of 25.
All the way up there on the northwestern part of the island, the waves break so powerfully that you think you are at the North Cape. Theoretically, you could continue on the trail walking east until you reach the eastern section of the coastal road, which runs along the north side of the island along the so-called "North Shore." However, we had, of course, parked our car at Keawaula Beach and therefore hiked back south. Overall, it was an extremely rewarding hike, only missing a proper inn to stop at the end of the trail, but that's something Americans somehow don't really go for.
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