The island of Oahu, where I live, has a total land area of 608 square miles. Measured from its farthest points, it is 44 miles long by 30 miles wide. I suspect that there is not one mile of this land that is left untouched by the human hand, as approximately 800,000 people live in this space. Luckily, from this view, you’d never know.

This is what the Waianae coastline looks like around midday as you look back on your way out to Keana Point. It is a four mile coastal hike from where the road ends to the Point. The green mountainside rises up in sharp contrast to the deep blue of the open ocean, that relentlessly pounds and carves the lava cliffs. The path ends at a natural wildlife preserve, where huge albatross glide and swoop over short sand dunes. If you’re lucky, during the right season you can occasionally find seals sunning themselves where the ocean meets the rock. During the winter months, pods of humpback whales spout and breach only a couple miles out. Along this jagged shoreline at the point you can find small, clear sheltered pools of miniature ocean eco-systems - good for shell mining, cooling off, and making love.