This morning we got up at 2:30am to get ready to go on our excursion to Haleakala to see the sun rise over the volcanic crater. I had been to the sunrise before and knew it was worth it – having not seen it Jarrett wasn’t yet convinced, but he would be in a few hours! We took this excursion through Roberts Hawaii, which is a tour company operating out of the islands. It was significantly cheaper, and would turn out to be the same thing – gotta love a great deal! We took a van to the top with 8 other people – the tour guide said the van would hold 10 Americans or 16 Koreans – ha!! ;)
The drive from the boat to the summit of the crater was about 1.5 hours. We went from sea level to 10,023 feet in that amount of time – pretty crazy, huh? The weather at the summit was between 30 and 40 degrees Fahrenheit, so it was a good thing we knew we’d be doing this before we came to Hawaii – we had jeans and jackets, but it was still cold! It was also pitch black, as there are absolutely no lights around so as not to ruin the view of the sunrise. Also, the air is really thin at the summit – you have to move really slowly or you seriously do get light headed. We heard later that one woman fell trying to come up the steps to the observatory too fast. At the summit there’s also an observatory with lots of telescopes and such, and there are trails all through the crater which can take as little as three hours or as long as three days to traverse – it is absolutely huge.
We got out of the van around 5:30 and stood with about 100 other people watching the progression in the sky until the sun rose. All I can say is…AMAZING! Jarrett definitely knew it was worth waking up early after we saw it!
On the way down the crater we saw the bike riders, about 10 groups of 20 of them, who bike ride down the twists and turns of the volcano road, traveling at around 35 mph – that’s pretty fast for a bike! We did it as a family the last time I was in Maui, and it was amazing! However, there was no convincing Jarrett, so we went up and down the volcano in the van ;) On the way down we got a better view of the crater and the cinder cones inside. From that elevation there was also an amazing view of the island – you could just barely make out our huge ship, and you could see the fields of sugar cane.
After we got back on the ship around 8:30am, we took a nap, ate lunch, and then hung out at the pool listening to the live music from the hot tub until we set sail – it was cool to watch us leave shore from the open deck, with Mai Tai’s in our hands! We then cleaned up again and ate at the Liberty Restaurant, one of the main restaurants on the ship. It is really neatly decorated, and the meal was really good! After dinner we went to hear the comedy of Chris Alpine, which was actually really good! We were finally able to stay up late because we are actually getting used to the time change and not getting tired by 9:00pm – ha!
That’s all for our last day in Maui – until tomorrow, Aloha!
The drive from the boat to the summit of the crater was about 1.5 hours. We went from sea level to 10,023 feet in that amount of time – pretty crazy, huh? The weather at the summit was between 30 and 40 degrees Fahrenheit, so it was a good thing we knew we’d be doing this before we came to Hawaii – we had jeans and jackets, but it was still cold! It was also pitch black, as there are absolutely no lights around so as not to ruin the view of the sunrise. Also, the air is really thin at the summit – you have to move really slowly or you seriously do get light headed. We heard later that one woman fell trying to come up the steps to the observatory too fast. At the summit there’s also an observatory with lots of telescopes and such, and there are trails all through the crater which can take as little as three hours or as long as three days to traverse – it is absolutely huge.
We got out of the van around 5:30 and stood with about 100 other people watching the progression in the sky until the sun rose. All I can say is…AMAZING! Jarrett definitely knew it was worth waking up early after we saw it!
On the way down the crater we saw the bike riders, about 10 groups of 20 of them, who bike ride down the twists and turns of the volcano road, traveling at around 35 mph – that’s pretty fast for a bike! We did it as a family the last time I was in Maui, and it was amazing! However, there was no convincing Jarrett, so we went up and down the volcano in the van ;) On the way down we got a better view of the crater and the cinder cones inside. From that elevation there was also an amazing view of the island – you could just barely make out our huge ship, and you could see the fields of sugar cane.
After we got back on the ship around 8:30am, we took a nap, ate lunch, and then hung out at the pool listening to the live music from the hot tub until we set sail – it was cool to watch us leave shore from the open deck, with Mai Tai’s in our hands! We then cleaned up again and ate at the Liberty Restaurant, one of the main restaurants on the ship. It is really neatly decorated, and the meal was really good! After dinner we went to hear the comedy of Chris Alpine, which was actually really good! We were finally able to stay up late because we are actually getting used to the time change and not getting tired by 9:00pm – ha!
That’s all for our last day in Maui – until tomorrow, Aloha!
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