A Relaxing Morning
On Monday February 24th we decided that since we had been running around the Island for a few days and it was time to take a little relaxing morning to ourselves at the resort. Here is a little tour around the Hilton Waikoloa Villiage. Again I can't say enough about how beautiful it was!
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| The Cantina Near the Ocean Tower |
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| The tram that is available to take you around the resort |
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| Some of the fish in the the pond |
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| There are waterfalls everywhere! |
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| Artwork is around every corner |
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| You never know what you will find around the corner |
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| It was fun to walk under the waterfall by the lagoon! |
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| The Dolphins were so cool to see! |
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| The Lagoon near where the Big Island Breakfast is served. |
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| The property was just beautiful |
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| The birds were beautiful! |
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| What is it about birds that make people talk funny? |
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| It was so nice to see flowers in February! |
We just loved walking around this resort....it took us the whole week to totally explore it! Just an amazing property!
An Amazing Evening (Mauna Kea)
About 3:00 we got ready to depart the resort for our evening adventure. We had decided to head to the Mauna Kea Visitor's Center to do some star gazing.
We had done some research about this before leaving home. There are basically two ways to get to the summit of Mauna Kea. 1. You can take an organized tour that lasts about 8 hours and costs about $200.00 per person on average or 2. You can rent a 4 wheel drive vehicle from Harper Rentals and drive yourself to the summit. It is not recommended that you drive a vehicle other than a 4 wheel drive vehicle because of the unpaved roadways and steep grades. Other than Harper, the other rental car companies will void your contract if you drive to the summit and have an accident.
So.....we checked a little further into both options and decided that neither one really fit our time frame or were easily accomplished for us. This is NOT to say that either option is not good. They just didn't work for us this time. My husband and I are pretty much do-it-yourselfers and like to have control of our time so the 8 hour tour just didn't feel like "us" and we had already rented a vehicle so with the hours of Harper Rental we would have had to leave our initial rental car somewhere until we were able to go back and switch it....we were even willing to pay for the additional rental but the logistics just didn't work well for us. We talked about trying to make it to the summit in the car we rented....after all we have driven up to the summit of Pike's Peak which is about the same altitude, several times in a normal rental vehicle. The warnings of the locals though deterred us and even though we saw other's making the trek in normal vehicles we decided it wasn't worth the risk.
I always like to have reasons to return to a place I love so this is my reason....next time we will rent from Harper and drive to the summit!
However.....we also learned that anyone can drive to the Mauna Kea Visitor's Center which is just over 9,000 feet altitude. We also learned that this is actually the area that the guided tours come back to to set up for their stargazing anyway. While there are many observatories on the summit....these are owned by many countries and are not open to the public.
So all that being said, we left our Resort around 3:00 PM and headed to the grocery store in Waimea to pick up some sandwiches and snacks to take on our way. Tip: There isn't any food at the visitor's center or along the way so be sure to pack something up to eat during your drive and visit.
Depending on how old your travel guide book is or what website you read, you may see how the road to Mauna Kea (Saddle Road) is very dangerous and rental cars do not allow you to take vehicles on this roadway. This is outdated. A new, improved Saddle Road has recently been opened. It is much less windy and very well lined with reflectors in the roadway itself. It is a very safe roadway so please do not let the warnings deter you from making the trip to Mauna Kea. We did end up on a section of the old Saddle Road on our way to the mountain (we tend to get lost at times LOL) and I can certainly see why the warnings existed. I would not have wanted to be anywhere near that road in the total darkness!
We arrived at the Visitor's Center before sunset (make sure you check the internet for sunset times during your visit). The center itself isn't large. They do offer a movie all during the day and then they have a different movie that they show before sunset. Tip: There is not much seating for the movie so get there early if you want to get a seat! The standing room is also limited and groups from the tours come for the movie also.
This is a rough idea of the schedule at the visitor's center.
About an hour and a half before sunset the shuttles from all of the tours (and there are a lot!) arrive at the visitor's center. Parking is at a premium. Be sure to get there early to get a good parking spot. The tour busses will move out eventually but they take up a lot of space while they are there. Once the tours arrive they will park, pass out Parka's to the guests and then head to the picnic areas to set up their dinners (dinners are pre made and reviews are not necessarily flattering) they also get hot cocoa at the visitor's center and use the restrooms available there so during that time, it may be hard to move around the area. We staying in our vehicle and just waited till they all moved out to the summit.
Once they were headed on their way, we went back into the visitor's center for the evening movie. We didn't get in there early enough however and had to stand. It is an hour long movie and explains the sacredness of the mountain to the native Hawaiians. We stayed for about 45 minutes before our legs gave out and we decided to head outside.
Now be aware it gets COLD on this mountain even at the Visitor's Center altitude. We had packed our winter coats, layers of clothes, jeans, gloves, hats, ear muffs and we were very happy that we had each and every piece of clothing that we brought.
Once the movie is done, you can head out to the patio area where the employees have set up several telescopes that are focused on different heavenly bodies. This is when the fun begins! One of the things that the tours really push is that they have their own telescope and you don't have to share with so many people like you do at the visitor's center. While there were lines for the telescopes, we didn't find that they took that long to maneuver. People were very polite and looked and moved along. There is so much to see with the naked eye that you don't want to be looking through a telescope the whole time!
The first thing that we got to see was Jupiter and 4 of it's moons. It was absolutely amazing. As the sky got darker and darker the stars just began to pop! I have NEVER seen so many stars in one place in my entire life! We had taken the trip up Haleakala on Maui for sunrise last year and there were lots of stars there....this was even more amazing! I can't even put into words how totally awe inspiring this was.
It was too dark to take photos of the stars but they did have one telescope connected to a monitor which showed an image of what it was focused on.....this particular one was focused on the nebula that is inside Orion's Belt. How amazing to see a star nursery!!!
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| Nebula inside Orion's Belt |
The even cooler thing was that much of the heavenly bodies you could see with the naked eye. The narrators suggested bringing a pair of binoculars and you could see even more! Next time I will definitely pack my binoculars!
After a short time, they begin a "star tour". They use laser pointers to show you where constellations and stars are located. It is very educational and fun as well. Again, just be sure to dress appropriately because if you don't you will get cold rather quickly.....believe me you want to stay outside as long as possible to see the sky!
Just a note of interest: We noticed as soon as we landed in Kona on our first night on the Island that the street lights were yellow. This is because they do not want any light of certain frequencies to be emitted on the island to ensure that viewing from the observatories is the best it can be. This area is THE place to star gaze as it is known as the best place on earth to view the stars. This is why so many countries have built high powered observatories at the summit!
This is a "MUST DO" when you visit the Big Island. Whether you decide that a tour is the right way to make the trek or if you just want to drive yourself....whether you decide to go to the summit or just the visitor's center.....make this a part of your plans. You will NOT be sorry!
We left the area about 9:00 PM or so and made the hour plus drive back to the resort. It was an evening that will not be forgotten and so worth the effort to get there!
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