Big Island Trip - Part I

Friday.

It was about midnight when I decided to close my eyes just for a little bit. In about six hours I would be on a flight to the Big Island with my friends. I’d be at the airport in five hours, and leaving Waikiki in four. That meant that I had to be ready in three. Unfortunately, because I did close my eyes - even for a second - I sealed my fate to wake up two minutes before our airport transfer was supposed to leave Waikiki. Having not washed the dishes, cleaned my room, or (most importantly) packed for the trip, I was in a mad rush to get ready and shove whatever clothes I could into my bag. There was one important thing that I could not go to Big Island without: T.K.

My weekend was essentially a trip to witness the lava flows at Kīlauea and learn other cool stuff about the geology of the Big Island, along with my GG103 peers and some teaching staff. However, with some of my friends in the MIX, we planned to arrive in Hilo earlier and leave later than the rest of the students and staff. Our early flight gave us twelve hours to explore the island on our own in our shiny Dodge rental cars.

Badass Black or White Wussies? I chose the Dark Side.

After breakfast at a very American diner, our first stop was the Akaka Falls - a massive and spectacular waterfall north of Hilo. Everything’s bigger on the Big Island, and unfortunately this waterfall was too high to jump from into the pool without injury or death. Moving on, we skipped the Rainbow Falls in favour of ascending to the 4,000-meter summit of Mauna Kea - the world’s tallest mountain as measured from its base on the sea floor. We stopped at the Visitor’s Information Center 2,800m up to check out the silverswords and the gift shop, where I probably should have bought a warmer jacket.

Dotted around the peak of Mauna Kea are a handful of astronomical observatories glazed with a layer of ice - symbolic of how freakin’ freezing it is up there.

Not long after taking a couple of happy snaps was I back in the car, warming up and nursing a bad headache. I slept a lot in the car. I remember stopping again at the Visitor’s Center for a cup of hot water, and then nothing until around 6pm when I was dropped off at the airport to meet the geology crew. Due to heavy rainfall in Hilo, some planes were unable to land. Flights were delayed for hours, and so those of us who were already in Hilo were stuck listening to the calls of the coqui frog.

We eventually had dinner - nothing fancy, I just had a meal from Jack In The Box - and departed for Kīlauea Military Camp. In favour of not riding in a people-mover, I jumped into the big four-wheel drive or “SUV”, where on the way to KMC the members of Team SUV got to know one another over scary local stories. Needless to say, I couldn’t help but stare out my window into the fog, looking for a woman in white. I’m not sure what time we arrived at the military camp - might’ve been around 10pm - but I claimed my top bunk, brushed my teeth, snuck a couple of complimentary bars of soap into my jacket pocket and went to sleep.


The weekend continues here.