#6 Romantic Thing to Do on the Big Island of Hawaii

Romantic Sunset & Star Gazing

First, press ‘Play’ …

…then picture this

…you and your love surrounded by the night, tight in each other’s arms, watching the milky way blaze across the night sky.   As you sit quitely beneath the universe you become lost in each other.

Hawaii is a world-class location for star gazing.  There’s a reason it’s home to 13 telescopes representing 11 countries.  MaunaKea (pron. mon-a-KAY-a), rising 13,796 feet above sea level, is one of the most renowned astronomical sites on the planet.  The tallest sea mountain in the world, is a fitting place to renew your love for each other.  Because of the minimal light pollution, clarity of the air and elevation, the stars light the night sky like so much glitter.

You and your love can enjoy a guided stargazing tour or have a private experience on your own.  If you choose a tour, you’ll not only have  transportation, you’ll be offered warm parkas, dinner, access to the mountain summit, and detailed stories about the history and cultural significance of MaunaKea.

If you decide to explore the summit on your own, you must have a four-wheel drive vehicle.  However, if you want to go no further than the Onizuka Center for International Astronomy Visitor Information Station at the 9,300-foot level you can access it in a two-wheel drive vehicle.  (Check first with your rental car company to see if access to MaunaKea is allowed).   The Onizuka Visitors’ center is open daily, and offers summit tours in your own vehicle for public stargazing. (The high altitude may be a health hazard for some and can produce serious life-threatening conditions.  Be sure to familiarize yourself with safety precautions before traveling upslope MaunaKea.)

On your own or on a tour?

So, how about it?  Would you like a private experience, with a nighttime picnic outside the Visitors Center?   Or is your trip not complete until you see the world-class telescopes on the summit of the beautiful MaunaKea?   A lot depends on whether you want to go all the way to the summit of MaunaKea.  While it is feasible to go on your own up to the summit in a four wheel drive vehicle, I don’t advise it if you are a tourist with a rental car.  Here are a few reasons why you may want to go on a tour if you want to go to the top and see the observatories up close and personal.

• The national car rental companies don’t allow you to drive past the visitors center at the 9300 ft elevation of MaunaKea. Some rental car agencies don’t even allow their rental cars at all on the road to the visitors center.  Check with yours before heading out.
• Even if you are able to drive to the summit, you should have a 4-wheel drive vehicle.  In fact for the official summit tour provided by the Mauna Kea Visitor Center, you must provide your own 4-wheel drive vehicle. There are several unpaved miles of road between the visitor’s center and the summit.  Plus, in the winter, you may encounter snow and ice.
• At the summit, you’ll experience 40% less oxygen than at sea level.  This can have pretty severe and unpredictable effects on you. So, why not leave the driving up to a professional who knows the roads and is able to handle the effects of oxygen deprivation.

A Private Experience On your Own

Since this is all about reconnecting with your love and not an exercise in oxygen deprivation, you decide to go on your own to the visitor’s center for a night time picnic.

Start by Dressing Warm & Rounding up a Night Time Picnic

You’ll begin your adventure by dressing warm in long pants and sneakers or hiking shoes with a long-sleeved shirt.  If you’re not going on a tour, you’ll want to bring a heavy coat.

The next order of the day is to pack a picnic.   The perfect place for this is Sansei Seafood Restaurant & Sushi Bar in the Queens’ MarketPlace in Waikoloa Village.   You and your love will enjoy any of their award-winning dishes.  Just place an order to go and ask for napkins and silverware.

Your Nighttime Picnic Provisioned by Sansei Seafood Restaurant & Sushi Bar

Sansei has many tasty selections to tempt you and your love.  Here are some of my favorites.

Ripe mango, blue crab, fresh greens & crunchy peanuts, wrapped in mamenori.  Ask them to pack the sweet Thai chili vinaigrette separately.

Panko-Crusted Fresh Ahi Sashimi

Island fresh ahi tuna wrapped with arugula and spinach, panko crusted and flash fried. Ask them to pack the accompanying soy wasabi butter sauce separately.

Crispy tempura shrimp is another good option.  It may not be as crispy by the time you’re ready to eat it, but it’s still wonderful.  Ask for the garlic masago aioli & unagi glaze in a separate container to help keep it crisp.

Broiled Salmon Belly

It doesn’t get much better.  Rich, fatty, savory salmon belly with crispy grilled skin.   It’s really, really good!

Sunset Times on the Big Island

The Drive to MaunaKea

You begin your adventure to MaunaKea on the Saddle road, which connects Waimea and Hilo.

It is fittingly one of the most hauntingly beautiful roads anywhere.  You appreciate you love’s careful vigilance for the local donkeys and other large critters crossing the road at dusk.

You follow Hwy 200 (Saddle Road) until you get to the Mauna Kea access road (around mile marker 28, across the street from the Pu’u Huluhulu Cinder cone parking lot). The visitor center is located about halfway up the Maunakea volcano at 9.200 ft elevation.

It takes you about an hour of driving and talking to reach the Visitor’s center just in time for the sunset.

The MaunaKea Visitor Information Station

The visitor information station (official website) is officially called the “Onizuka Center for International Astronomy Visitor Information Station”,and is named after the Hawaiʻi-born astronaut Ellison Onizuka who died in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986.

In the visitor center you can watch a video about astronomy. There also is information on display about the volcano, and a small souvenir shop where you can buy good souvenirs, hot and cold drinks, and snacks.  But you don’t because you have a WONDERFUL picnic waiting.

Outside the visitor center local volunteer astronomers have set up telescopes you’ll be able to use under supervision once the sun sets. (official website). This is possible every night of the year from 6:00 pm until 10:00 pm and reservations are not needed.

There may be long lines and scarce parking at the Visitor Information Station on any evening until about an hour and a half after sunset.

The Sunset from MaunaKea

MaunaKea is home to some of the most magnificent, vibrant, romantic sunsets above the clouds you’ll ever see.  You can visit the telescopes at the summit during daytime and stay for up to 30 minutes after sunset.  You and your love will watch as the sun dips below the clouds in a spectacular explosion of color, framed by the snowy peak, nearby volcanoes, and the futuristic observatories.

And then this…

… melts into this ….

… which finally gives way to this …

You enjoy the stars from one of the many telescopes located outside the visitors center.   It’s breathtaking.  Then you retire to your car for your night picnic.  Finally, sated, you and your love head out.

The stars stay with you.

Reference Information

Ku’u Lei, Ku’u Ipo by Hapa is one of my favorite songs.

“Ku’u lei” literally means “my lei”, and it’s a metaphorical way to refer to your beloved.

Ku’u is an affectionate form of ko’u or ka’u and means ‘my’ in the Hawaiian language.
Ipo means sweetheart, darling, or my love

If you do make the trip to the summit, please be respectful.  The summit of MaunaKea is sacred to Hawaiians as the place where the snow goddess Poli‘ahu (pron. po-lee-a-hu) lives.

If you decide to go with a tour company

There are about a half dozen or so companies who offer MaunaKea sunset and stargazing tours. I recommend Hawaii Forest and Trail and  Mauna Kea Summit Adventures.   Both companies have knowledgeable and friendly guides who respect the local customs and habitats.

Mauna Kea Summit Adventures claim to have the most powerful telescopes of the tour companies and they use mini-bus with large windows and very comfortable coach seating.  (Most of the other companies use standard vans with the bench style seating.  Not good on the bumpy drive up to the summit.)   NOTE: If you have asthma, you may be permitted to go on the tour, if you bring your inhaler and haven’t been hospitalized for asthma in the past 2 years.  Be sure and check with your doctor and the tour company for advice regarding your own conditions.

The tours supply arctic parkas and nice thick gloves,  snacks, and water.  Depending on the tour you choose dinner can also be included. Expect the tour to last an average of 8 hours.

Getting to MaunaKea

Once at MaunaKea

#7 of the Romantic Things to Do on the Big Island of Hawaii

Let me Take You on a Magic Carpet Ride

First, press ‘Play’ …

…then picture this.

You arrive about an hour early and check in with the desk personnel at the heliport just off the highway going north out of Kona.  It’s mid-morning, and when you get out of your car, you can smell the kerosene from the jet engines on the helicopters as they come and go.  They’re busy here, but it’s a relaxed busy, somehow different from the airport experience you’re used to seeing.

The people behind the desk eventually round up your group and you walk out to your gleaming machine.  Your helicopter is an Ecostar.  It has a huge bubble canopy that wraps around most of the front.  It’s beautiful.

You meet your pilot who is a very knowledgable and competent guy.  He flew Blackhawk helicopters, a much bigger and more complex machine for the US Army in Afghanistan and Iraq.  You’ll feel very comfortable with him at the controls.

Your love helps you into the helicopter.   You’re seated in the middle, next to the pilot and your love climbs in beside you taking your hand.   From below your feet to above your head are huge, clear panels sweeping around to both sides.  It provides you an amazing, almost unobstructed view.   There are also two couples seated behind you on the back row, and after everyone’s belted in the jet engine starts and the rotor overhead begins to spin.  It’s not loud because you’re wearing headsets that allow conversation by pushing a switch.

The pilot talks to the tower, then pulls a lever on his left up a bit and you slowly rise into the air.   It’s wonderful, unlike anything you’ve ever felt before!   It’s as if the two of you are sitting on a magic carpet.  As the ground starts to recede below, you gently move forward and begin to glide away on a slowly increasing curve.   The views are amazing, the lava forming soft puffy mounds beneath your feet.

That type of lava is known as pahoehoe (pron. puh–HOH-EE-hoh-ee) and it’s formed when lava moves slowly and cools slowly.  Pahoehoe lava has a smooth, shiny, or swirled surface and the word comes from the Hawaiian verb “hoe”, which means “to paddle” reminiscent of the swirls made by paddles in the water.

As you continue inland, the lava fields become more craggy, dotted with straw-colored puffs of invasive bunch grass.  This is aa (pron. AH-ah) lava which is formed when lava flows rapidly. Under these circumstances, there is rapid heat loss.  When the solid surface crust is torn, the underlying lava is unable to move quickly enough to heal the tear.  Bits of the crust are then mixed in and coated by the still liquid lava, forming the craggy chunks

Your progress is much slower than a plane because the helicopter’s working hard to climb as you move inland and the land rises beneath you.

Soaring off across the plains at about 500 feet, The Magnificent Seven sound track begins to play on your headset.  You look down and see hundreds of black dots flowing across the grass below.  They’re sounders of feral pigs, large and small, running from the helicopter.  Watching them sweep across the ground, you almost feel as if you’re in the middle of a wild west round up.  You wonder what they eat, where they drink and how so many of them exist out here (and, if you’re like me, where the nearest grill is.)   As you fly on, you see a herd of wild sheep below you on the plains.

Continuing further inland, the ground begins to undulate gently almost like waves on the surface of a grassy ocean.

The sunlight is softly painting the grasses below, highlighting the sage brown with a golden glow.  You notice the clouds beginning to gather around the mountain top.  Moving inland the landscape, dotted with volcanic cinder cones almost looks alien.

Heading eastward towards Hilo the landscape begins to change beneath your feet.  The black lava and brown grass gives way to more lush, green pastures.  You’re coming into a rain forest.

As you climb higher, you rise over the saddle between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa and enter the rain showers and mist that often hang in the valley.  Beads of moisture form and streak the canopy as you push north east through the sky at over 100 miles an hour.  Soon the visibility improves and you see the slopes below you flushed with green as you move over the wet side of the island.

As you swing out over the ocean and head south, the beautiful eastern cliffs come into view.   The eastern coast of the Big Island is incredible.

It’s easy to envision the topography as a gigantic lava flow that broke off and slid into the ocean, with a few large pieces sticking up out of the water as a reminder.   These cliffs are one of the most iconic sights on the entire island and you know that image will be forever etched in your mind.

Continuing south, the land flattens out, becoming more green.  You see tiny farms and many small patches covered with black shade cloth.  These are the orchid and flower farms of Hilo.   The shoreline here is rocky with white water as the waves break on the rough ground.

The only places that aren’t covered with green are lava flows, roads and roofs.   Your magic carpet bends its course south, following the flank of Mauna Kea until you come to Kilauea Volcano and the Pu’u ‘O’o vent in the crater’s mouth.

You fly past and around it, leaning over to see the bright orange space where the lava is flowing away under the crust and down to the coast.  You wonder what it would be like down there – the furnace heat of the glowing magma smoothly slipping from sight, only to reappear miles away, the sulphur stink of the gasses billowing out into the air.

After a couple of passes you slide downhill over green slopes to land at Hilo International Airport for more gas.  Everybody gets out and walks to the shelter.  It feels like it’s going to rain any minute in Hilo even when it’s not.  Fifteen minutes later everybody piles in again and away you fly, heading out to sea and north along the coast.   There are some lovely beaches in Hilo.  If you have time you decide you’d like to explore them further.

It’s almost godlike, this sense of freedom.  The pilot calls out and you look sharply below at something huge in the water.  It’s humpback whales, clearly visible through the water below.  They rise and spout underneath you, and the brisk trade wind pushes the vapor away toward the island as you watch.

A gentle bank sends you back toward the land, your pilot turning into one of the incredible valleys carved into the cliffside.  And shortly something amazing comes into view.  Waterfalls – taller than you are, flying along at over a thousand feet!  You look up to see them leaping free from vertical cliffs to fall hundreds of feet into pools, only to leap again and spill endlessly to the ocean.  These streams, creeks and small rivers are replenished almost daily in one of the wettest places on earth, and the slopes are carpeted in green vegetation.  It’s awe inspiring to realize that water was the author of this valley.

You arc in and turn tightly within the confines of the narrow valley, never stopping to hover because that’s dangerous – as with most things in nature, speed is life when you’re flying.  After a few passes, you zoom out again and begin the long climb back up and over Kohala Volcano and then down again to the hot and sunny Kona side.  Coming back down from the north, you see the heliport and hover over your pad, settling gently to earth.  You almost don’t want to get off your magic carpet, but you know that you need time to absorb the amazing things you’ve seen, to digest the wonder you’ve felt.  It’s hard to describe, but after seeing the island this way, it changes you.  You become more open to this special place, more aware of its depth, its appeal and its amazing variety.

Blue Hawaiian Helicopter

Address: 68-690 Waikoloa Rd, Waikoloa Village, HI 96738

Phone: 808-961-5600

Least Busy Times: Mondays