Dave and Jada's Maui Honeymoon Travellogue:
Day 4 - Monday August 7, 2000
Jada asked an interesting question this evening as we were coming back to our place of residence with the top down and sun sinking over the ocean to our left. Where do people who live on Maui go for vacation? Minnesota?
Anyway, this morning we got up around 7am which is late for us considering we go to bed around 9.30pm most of the time. We drove up to Haleakala to take a look around. We had originally planned on doing a bit of hiking, but that never happened. Going from 0 to 10000 feet really left us feeling the altitude. We did leave the top down all the way up even though the difference between the temp at the summit and the beach is nearly 32 degrees. We started referring to the other people who had rented a convertible yet kept the top up as losers even as we drove through the cloud to get to the summit.
At the top, the valley which is often referred to as the crater was almost completely obscured by the clouds. What we could see of the lava domes was pretty spectacular. We were able to see the 14k foot peak of the neighboring big island of Hawaii 140 miles away like it was a lot closer. As we got to the summit observatory, the ranger was beginning a talk. It turns out that the whole island chain is slowly moving to the northwest at a rate of about 4 inches a year, and they are also sinking by about a half inch a year. The islands were actually formed through a weak spot in the Pacific plate which is creating the islands one at a time with super hot lava flows, the islands slowly move to the northwest, and a new one gets created like an assembly line. Currently, there is a new Hawaiian island forming about 10,000 feet below sea level. It should break the surface in about 100,000 years. Then in about a million years, it should be ready for habitation...so we've got that goin' for us.
Up here at the summit was also an access road to an observatory staffed by the University of Hawaii, but used by NASA, DOD, and other researchers. It is on of the bases used for tracking the satelites and space junk in orbit around Earth. I don't think it was open for visitors.
There were also plants called Silverswords that are descended from sunflowers. I won't get into the whole story there since I don't remember all of it, but the short of it is, sunflower seeds were some how deposited on Haleakala a million years ago, and through evolution and mutation, they developed into a plant with very silvery leaves, and a whole bunch of tiny flowers that when examined close up look just like a sunflower plant.
At the lower visitor center, we had lunch on a stone wall. The valley was still socked in. But the really funny thing was that some guy had rented a red Plymouth Prowler and drove it up the mountain. He parked it way on the end of the lot with no cars anywhere near him. However, the very next car that came up to park parked right next to him as if to say "screw you, image boy". The next car around parked on the other side of him. And in a short time, there were cars all around it. There were people taking pictures of themselves with it, leaning on it, peering through the windows. It was hilarious. I mean, for one, we're at the National park with unbelievable geological and scenic significance, not to mention this guy obviously didn't want to have anything happen to the car, and people were more taken with it than anything else around them. Lee Iococa would be so proud.
We didn't end up going to Iao. We were tired, and we still have another day to get to it. So we headed home, slathered on some sunscreen, sat in the sun, and read. Then we headed to the small town of Makawao up country on the lower slopes of Haleakala, and not far from where we are staying. Jada bought a nice Hawaiian dress, and we had dinner at a Mexican restaurant. Then we headed to Paia straight down the road to try to pick me up a nice Hawaiian shirt for the Luau tomorrow night, but we were too late getting to the shops. I guess we'll have to stop on the way back tomorrow. Instead we had a couple of ice cream cones at the shop next door which was also closed, but didn't close its doors soon enough. They put an awful lot of ice cream in those cones for the price they charged, and we sat on the hood of the car and ate them. Then we headed for home, and that's where you came in on this entry.
We got back to the house and watched another spectacular sunset from the hot tub. Now we're getting ready to go bed because we have to to be up and out the door at 2am tomorrow for our sunrise from the top of Haleakala. If the pattern we've been noticing lately holds, it should be a cloudless sunrise from atop the "house of the sun". We've been watching every morning when we get up. We can actually see the sun gleaming off the windows of the observatory from our door. Pretty cool. good night!