It Can Freeze in Hawaii

In planning our trips, I do a lot of research that informs a trip-specific Excel spreadsheet outlining a bunch of possibilities by day (restaurants, activities complete with weblinks) as well as the more pedestrian logistic stuff like air, car, and hotel confirmation numbers and--if we're driving from city to city--travel times.  Then I pass the spreadsheet on to Ned to narrow things down; then, usually over a meal when we're all together, we run possibilities by the kids.  Sounds thrilling, doesn't it :)  Well, the joke's on you--it actually is!  To me, the planning process is like living the vacation in miniature--often over and over.  And, as Ned knows too well, some of our trips never grow out of this imaginary state: I pick them up with great enthusiasm, research with intensity, and then just drop them cold for a million reasons from cost to timing to bad vibes.  Or, in the case of a once planned and booked cruise to Cuba, I realize that this is NOT a trip our kids would enjoy at all, so I tuck it away in the back of my brain for some time in the future.

All of this is why, until the spreadsheet gets a name and I start booking flights, Ned doesn't pay much attention.

So, until I sent him "Mahalo" (the spreadsheet for this trip), Ned didn't know that I just may have found a way for him to finally see Mauna Kea.  In 2013, when we went to the Big Island for the first (and last) time, we had planned to get to the top of Mauna Kea--only to be foiled by the weather.  And, because we had left it to our last night, we lost the chance to try again.  Ned, who loves all things science-y and star gaze-y, was heartbroken.  How could we go back to the Big Island without getting to Mauna Kea?  Well ...

The POA makes two stops on Hawaii: in Hilo and Kona.  If we were able to jump ship for a night, we could get off at Hilo, rent a car to drive across the island, take a stargazing tour to the top of Mauna Kea, and spend the night in Kona at a hotel that was conveniently right on the pier at which NCL tendered POA passengers in and out of this second Hawaii stop.  Oh, and we could also return our rental car at that very same hotel.  Dream plan!  

All we needed was NCL's permission to run away from the POA.  While the NCL agents on the phone pushed back hard against this idea (which is apparently against some cruise law outside of the US), they did leave a sliver of window open because the Pride of America is an American ship and we were Americans in America--so we took it and booked it.  As it turns out, according to the POA staff on the boat, passengers do this all the time.  We just needed to attest that if we missed the boat, it was all our fault; and if the POA wanted to refuse us re-boarding, they could.  Oh, and we couldn't get a copy of this form for some reason.  So, of course, we signed the form, ran off the ship onto a car rental shuttle helpfully just outside, and took our overnight bags to the Hilo airport for an unexpectedly long wait to pick up a jeep and head across the island.

The day was bright and sunny as we took Saddle Road right through the heart of the Big Island.  From our last visit, I remembered this trip and being surprised how much this part of Hawaii looked like the Southwest.  Dry, scrubby landscape; big skies that stretched forever; distant mountains; little traffic.

The sloth-like pace of the staff at the rental car place ate up much of the time I had budgeted for a well-planned gf/lf lunch.  Luckily, we happened upon another L & L Hawaiian BBQ right near our tour office.

Side note, as I did for Alaska, I found all of our tours outside of NCL, which one of our cabbies said probably saved us at least $1,000.  This was nice because we spent more on tours than on the cruise itself because Hawaii.  One tip: go to Viatour and reverse search based on key phrases in tours you like there and book them yourself direct.  That will also save you a bit of money.  It's how I found Hawaii Forest and Trail. 

Our tour guide Justin was amazingly enthusiastic: an amateur astronomer with a love for Mauna Kea and a depth of understanding of the ongoing controversies at the nexus of history, culture, nature, and science that surround the thirty meter telescope.  He was also an ace driver!

So, we made our way up the mountain, and the chilling air began to turn into mist.  Our first stop was an old sheep station now owned by HFT.  While Justin set out our GF/LF picnic dinner, we wandered the abandoned grounds.











We were advised to drink as much water as we could to stave off altitude sickness--but not more than our bladders could hold because the sheep shearing station was home to the last porta-potties we'd see for a long time.

Then it was back on the bus for the climb up.

The scenery started to turn a bit more desert-like as the air got thinner.



The blue in this photo is unfiltered.  Wow!  The contrast between this bright sky and the heavy mist and clouds just a few thousand feet below at the sheep station is really remarkable.  Nature--you the real MVP!



We rose above the clouds, which was really freaky.





We paused at the first telescope which is a few thousand feet below the peak.  We saw a sign about something called the "World Wide Web."  Gotta check that out when we get back home!





It was already getting very cold and windy.  Snow was on some of the mountainous surfaces, and the rocks were so dry that they were as light as styrofoam.





The proper road ends about here and from that point forward, it's just gravel, really, really rough gravel.  As we bumped along, we could see our destination: the peak of Mauna Kea!



HFT provided us with big, warm, cushy parkas and gloves.  As Upstaters, we thought we'd be fine--but we hadn't factored in the bone dry cold.  Above the clouds, there was no layer of atmospheric protection.  It made the light gorgeous and the temperature feel about twice as cold as it was (which was in the 30s).  Still, for a view like this, with the clouds rolling out below us like fields of snow, we were willing to shiver a bit.













Makes you wanna dance!



Ohana!







The sun was setting, lending a golden hour glow to everything and everyone.  With nothing to filter its warm (but not warming) light, the sunset bled across every surface.  Just incredible.

This family casts a long shadow!



As the sun fell lower and lower ...









the moon rose opposite.  A tiny speck in the softening blue of the soon to be night sky.



High above the clouds.

That was our cue to get back on the bus for the drive a few thousand feet below to stargaze.  Phones and cameras were forbidden: they couldn't capture the night sky and brought light pollution that ruined the view.  Justin set up the telescope by the glow of a devilish red light, and we took turns searching for planets, moons, and stars in the crystal clear night sky.  

Throughout, the temperatures kept dropping.  HFT kept us warm with the world's most delicious hot cocoa and fresh from the heater brownies.  But, they could not reach my now frozen toes, and Harper couldn't have either.  So, after a while, we huddled together in the bus for warmth.  Ned and Penn stuck it out all the way through.

As we made our way back down the mountain, with a quick pitstop for restrooms and gift shopping, the fullness of the day kicked in and we fell sound asleep in the deep darkness, dreaming of hot cocoa and Hawaiian snow.

Our hotel, the King Kamehameha Courtyard Marriott (which I'm sure the King would appreciate), was just a 10 minute drive and one McDonald's fry run away from HFT.  Check-in was smooth and our room was lovely.  Our next morning was an early one, so we snuggled in and fell asleep one last time knowing we had finally fulfilled Ned's Big Island dreams.