Day 10: The Summit...finally or not?

  Waikoloa, Hawaii, United States
Wednesday, November 7, 2007

I can't believe how fast times flies and today was my last full day in Hawaii!!  The morning wasn't terribly eventful, as I knew I had the trip to the Summit of Mauna Kea to look forward to.  I spent a good hour repacking my bags...I didn't realize how many souvenirs I bought.  It will be interesting to see tomorrow morning how I'll be able to cram everything else in!  Then I drove 45 minutes down south to visit Kona again - the little downtown area is right on the water with lots of fun stores and coffee shops.  I walked around, bought a few more souvenirs and then headed back north to Waikoloa to get ready for the summit trip.

After dropping my souvenirs, changing into warmer clothes and getting the few things I needed for the trip, I headed out to the Starbucks up the road where the shuttle was going to pick us up.  As I was waiting, as much as I have loved my 9 days here alone (for the most part...although every day I pretty much made new friends wherever I went) I suddenly had a need to hear some familiar voices from back home...hence why some of you either heard from me or at least saw the missed call!  Yet, don't get me wrong, a part of me REALLY wants to stay here!!  Like, really...

MSA Logo

The shuttle ride was fun as we ventured onto Saddle Road (one of the few main roads I haven't explored while here...many car rental companies won't let you drive it due to the conditions: poorly maintained, windy, foggy, etc.) which cuts through the middle of the island.  It was originally created in 40 days by the military in WWII as a single lane road.  Over the 2 hour drive, our driver also served as a tour guide and shared more interesting facts and history about the area and what we were seeing.

Stopping at 9,000 ft.

ROAD BLOCK!!!!!

We made it to the Visitors' Center at 9,000 ft. and unfortunately were greeted by park rangers blocking the road!!  Apparently the conditions at the top were too hazardous to drive through...snow, ice, fog.  The original plan was to hang out at the center for about an hour anyway to get used to the altitude and have dinner.  So we did that, in hopes that things would change and we'd be allowed through.  

Bring snow back down da mountain!

Meanwhile, people who were able to make it up the mountain before the road was blocked were coming back down with the back of their trucks filled with snow!  They like to bring the snow down to the beaches and build snowmen!  But alas and alak and woe is me, no such luck for the rest of us...we returned to the shuttle and headed back down the mountain.  Well, at least we get a full refund, and we still got to check out the view from partway up the mountain and have a now free dinner...

Another view of the clouds below

Luau

I was SO SAD!  But then I remembered, I was hoping to make it to a luau before I left and conveniently a luau was happening at my hotel tonight.  I made it back to the hotel around 7pm and asked the concierge if it was possible to get into the luau late.  She said yes, so I ran up to my room, threw my stuff down, changed out of my "mountain layers" and threw on my aloha dress, grabbed my cameras and booked it all the way to the other end of the resort!  There was no one at the entrance to take my money, and I should have just sneaked in, but of course I had to open my big mouth and ask someone if it was okay if I came in late to watch the rest of the performance.  At first the head waiter guy said sorry, they can't do that....the show is partway over, blah blah.  But I laid on the puppy dog eyes, shared my sob story of my summit trip being cancelled, we just got dropped off and I was looking for something fun to do on my last night.   Well, IT WORKED!  Not only did they decide to let me in for FREE but I also got a free drink from the waiter (another tasty Lava Flow...yum!).   Ahh, not all was lost on my last day!

Hehe.