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Published: October 5th 2012
So it was another early start on Tuesday, with a pickup at 5am to take me to the airport. The flight was short so I actually spent more time at the airport waiting to board than I did in the air. The airport at Kona was the first on this trip that didn’t look like every other airport, because it’s small and much of it is outdoors. A shuttle bus took me to my accommodation – the Hilton Waikoloa Village.
Of course, it was only 8:30am so while I was able to check in, I couldn’t access my room yet. However, I was told that it would be ready in a few hours, which meant I would be able to get in there before I was to be picked up for the tour of Mauna Kea. So I waited around the lobby until it was ready before I headed to my room. The Hilton is a resort, which really isn’t my thing. The room is nice enough, if annoying to get to (up stairs, cross the walkway, down an elevator). I really only want a hotel room, not all this other resort stuff, but there you go. I
wasn’t going to be spending much time here anyway.
At 2:30 I was picked up by the tour guide Robert. He was a really nice guy, who looked quite a bit like Donald Sutherland. Sounded a bit like him too. The tour was small – 7 people plus 4 more we would pick up our dinner spot near the Mauna Kea Visitors Centre. So Robert had us all introduce ourselves (the first 4 of us to do so all work in IT); we had a guy from Germany, a couple from Montreal, a mother and son from Arizona (the son lives in Japan now), a couple from Idaho, a girl from New York and me. Unlike most one day tours I’ve been on, this fostered a friendly atmosphere and everyone chatted with each other throughout the tour.
The first stop was at an old sheep station near the Mauna Kea Visitors Centre. We were inside the lower layer of clouds, which really just seemed like fog, funnily enough. Here we had a chance to look around while Robert prepared our dinner. I chatted with Robert while he did this, and when I told him
A turtle
At the resortabout my holiday he told me that one of his ancestors fought in the revolutionary war (wounded at Guilford Courthouse), and another fought in the Civil War. One of Roberts hobbies is apparently civil war re-enactment, although he admitted that there wasn’t a lot done on Hawaii. As a coincidence, Robert is reading a book on the battle of Shiloh that I had listened to (the audiobook) during my journey. Dinner was some bbq chicken and rice.
We then boarded the bus again (with our 4 new passengers that joined us here because they are staying over at Hilo) and began the ascent of Mauna Kea. Mauna Kea is technically the tallest mountain on Earth. This is because the base of the mountain is on the Ocean, so while the peak is about 14,000 feet above sea level and therefore lower than Mt Everest (and many other mountains), the total height is about 33,500 feet. But still, 14,000 feet is still very high so the bus had oxygen in case of an emergency and we had to be careful while up there.
The road up is 4 wheel drive for some of the way,
Just chillin'
At the resort mostly to discourage too many visitors. However, near the top it is paved so that the dust of visiting vehicles doesn’t affect the telescopes. The telescopes, after all, are why the road was here at all. The top of Mauna Kea, along with the Atacama desert in Chile, is the best location in the world for optical telescopes due to the weather conditions and altitude. Currently, there are 13 observatories on the mountain.
When we arrived at the top, it was really cold out and I felt the lack of oxygen pretty quickly. I was really light-headed for the first few minutes, but that soon went away and I felt fine. Unfortunately, it was a very cloudy day so even though we were above the usual cloud layer, we had another layer of cloud above us. This meant that there was no stargazing for us. This is very unusual, according to Robert, but one of the ladies on the tour was named Murphy, so she willingly took the blame. On the plus side, the clouds did make for a great sunset while we were up there.
We then headed back down to the Visitors
Old Sheep Station
On the way up Mauna Kea Centre. Normally on the tour they set up a telescope there and do some star gazing. As we had cloud, Robert used a laser pointer to show us where some things are (behind the cloud) but basically we stood around talking while drinking hot chocolate. We soon headed off and I arrived back at my hotel at about 10pm.
On Wednesday I had another tour booked – this one was a Big Island grand circle adventure, or somesuch. Essentially, the tour took us on a tour right round the big island – 250 miles in all. We started off by driving up to Waimea where we stopped at a shop to get munchies for the day. We then headed off for a long drive along the north east coast to Hilo. The scenery was really nice, and unlike the area where I’m staying, the vegetation was really green. This is because most of the rain on the island falls on the north and east coasts. In fact, Hilo is one of the wettest cities in the USA.
Once we reached Hilo, we stopped for a quick photo opportunity at Rainbow Falls. Then we headed
Old Sheep Station
On the way up Mauna Kea onto the Skygarden restaurant where we had lunch. Next stop was the Big Island Candy Factory where we had a small taste test, could have a look at the factory workers making chocolate goodies, and then of course buy some chocolate. Much of it features macadamia nuts, as that is one of the big crops here.
Once we’d had our fill of chocolate, it was on to the star attraction of the tour – Kilauea. Kilauea is one of the most active volcanoes on the planet and currently has been erupting since 1983. This constant erupting means that it doesn’t build up and therefore is not very violent. However, we entered the Volcano National Park and from the Jaggar Museum we could see plenty of smoke coming out of the caldera. No lava, unfortunately.
After looking around up at the caldera, we headed down to a lava tube. This is essentially a cave that was left hollow when the magma retreated after an eruption. We got to walk through part of the tube, before we rejoined the bus and headed to our next destination. This was a black sand beach on the south coast
Me and Mauna Loa
On the way up Mauna Kea of the island. We were running a little late so the stay here was pretty short. We then went to a nearby bakery where we bought some snacks for the long drive back to Kona. I arrived back at my hotel at about 8pm, so it had been about 11 hours in all.
This morning (Thursday) I had just one more activity to go before flying home. I had booked a helicopter “spectacular” tour of the big island. As it turned out, we travelled to many of the places I’d been to on Wednesday. However, some were much better to see from the air – particularly Kilauea. Although we didn’t fly over the caldera, we did fly over the lava flow. This is because the lava hasn’t been erupting from the caldera during the current eruption. We managed to see some lava. Most impressive was the remains of a road that was being “eaten” by the lava.
I expected the lava flow to be the highlight of the helicopter tour, but I was wrong. We headed back up past Hilo to some valleys on the coast just north of Waimea. I can’t remember the
names of the valleys but they were spectacular. The cliff sides were huge, and there were lots of waterfalls flowing into the valleys. It was a really impressive way to end the helicopter tour, which was about 2 hours in all.
And thus ends my vacation. I am currently back at the Hilton waiting for the shuttle bus that will be taking me to the airport. I fly back to Honolulu tonight, before flying back to Sydney tomorrow morning. I shall see you all soon!
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