Ke’ena Point Coastal Reserve

Last night, after our ridiculous hike on Stairway to Heaven, we headed to Ke’ena Point.  It is the western most part of O’ahu and is also home to a wildlife coastal reserve.  And it is gorgeous!

The reserve is home to many animals, including Laysan Albatross.  We got to see some chicks, which you think would be small, but they are actually quite large.

We also got to see some adults soaring through the sky.  They were so graceful and they looked like they were having fun.  They get to be up to 9 lbs with a wing span of 8 feet!

Then it happened.  The most amazing thing.  The one thing that I was looking forward to the most.  The one thing I feel blessed to be able to see.  Hawaiian Monk Seals!  There are only about 1,100 left in the entire world!  They are on the critically endangered list.

There were two of them, one regular sized one (regular in what I think how big California seals are) and one HUGE one.  Even the people who knew things about monk seals thought this guy was ginormous (he is the shinny poop looking thing on the beach).

They played with each other for a while before the big guy decided to leave and the little one stayed behind and took a nap.

We stayed there until sundown and drank some wine and ate some snacks.

Then it was off to watch the Wedge Tail Shearwater birds fly in to nest for the night.  They fly so artistically, but they walk really funny.  They have burrows that they dig and live in (angled hold in the sand).  When we walked by you could hear some of them digging out some loose sand from their burrows with their feet and we could see the sand flying out.  It was such a long day, from the Stairway to Heaven hike at 2am to the  Ke’ena Point Coastal Reserve at 9pm. But it was completely worth it!