Why do all Good Things Have to End?

After an amazing five days, we were on the last leg of our journey and as the saying goes, the best was definitely saved for the last.
Breathtaking Views Courtesy Paradise Helicopters and Atlantis Submarines
The week began with an amazing chopper ride that covered a major portion of the island. We flew over the Volcano National Park and were lucky enough to get an amazing aerial view of the Kilauea crater before the clouds set in. We got an even better sense of how the Hawaiian landscape changes, with distinct brown patches, lava flows, and vast greenery. My favorite was however the seven valleys; we had seen only two via road but this view was spectacular. The pilot took us into a couple of the valleys and Mr P and I almost expected dinosaurs to be walking around the greenery. We would’ve seen at least 30 waterfalls, big and small and the views were nothing less than breathtaking.
Do you meditate? Do your eyes sometimes well up when meditating? Though the noisy helicopter was in no way conducive to meditation, I felt my eyes well up at one point, as we were making our way out of a valley… Maybe just looking at all that lush greenery was meditative enough for my mind!

After the chopper ride, we did a little bit of shopping and headed for the submarine ride. The sub took us 115 feet down and even settled on the sea bed for some time, while we watched colorful fish and coral through the portholes. Though it was a lot of fun, it fell a little short in comparison to the morning’s experience. Later that evening, we picked up Ms P from the airport and headed home. The next day was lighter, so we chilled at home till early afternoon and set out to see some old Hawaiian fish ponds, a beach, and have a nice dinner at Lava Lava Beach Club.

The Observatories Upon a Dormant Volcano
Our entire trip was like a good piece of music, building up to a perfect ending. In our case, the crescendo was the trip to Mauna Kea, a dormant volcano that houses 12 non-profit observatories. This was one of the main reasons we wanted to visit Hawaii while my cousins were still there, to get access to the Keck observatory (Mr. A works there) for a special tour of the massive telescopes. By the way, did you know that Hawaii is among the top locations for astronomical observations, owing to its clear, unadulterated views of the sky?

Standing tall at 13,803 ft, Mauna Kea is considered the tallest mountain in the world, measured from the sea bed. You can get up there only in a four-wheel drive vehicle and another friend of our cousins stepped in and offered us his 4Runner for the trip. Before we went up Mauna Kea, we went up Mauna Loa, an active volcano that last erupted in 2022. The lava flow blocked the only road that goes up to the observatory, thus leaving employees like Ms. P with no way to go up.

We made it to the Mauna Kea visitor’s center at about noon, had a lavish lunch of curd rice, chips, and a variety of pickles, and slowly acclimatized ourselves for the rest of the journey up. We had been forewarned about possible altitude sickness at the observatory (due to lack of oxygen) and it actually hit Mr. P and me as soon we exited the car. Just a little lightheadedness… we were fine after that. Inside the observatory, we checked our oxygen levels to make sure we all were in the 80s, sat in the cafe for a few minutes, and then went in to see the ‘dancing of the telescope’ organized especially for us. The whole tour, guided by our personal specialists was very interesting and after spending some time learning about the telescopes and their working we made our way back to the cafeteria. Our oxygen levels had dropped to the 70s, so we sat down to take some deep breaths; refueled our bellies and our lungs, took some cool selfies outside, and started our drive back home.

A hui hou kakou (Until we meet again)
Our hosts insisted on cooking dinner for us and we obliged: we were treated to a delicious moong bean and tofu curry and flatbreads. After having our fill, they dropped us back at our place where we had the very unappealing job of packing up. We just didn’t want to leave… but well all good things have to come to an end and so did our vacation. We got dropped off at the airport at around 11:15 for our 1:10 flight. But the flight got delayed and we ended up doing some shopping in the only gift store at the Kona airport. We even bought an oleander plant (no we did not smuggle it): it was packaged and OKayed to enter the mainland. I planted it a couple of days later and am now waiting for it to show signs of life.

Our Hawaii trip took so many years to happen and every second spent on the island was absolutely worth it. A few weeks back, my mother asked me why I had not written about the trip, having raved about it so much over the phone. Fighting every last bit of laziness, I sat down to write A blog and ended up writing THREE.

I hope you enjoyed traveling along with us on this lovely journey and I also hope that it inspires you to plan some trips, be it with your family, friends, or alone… just travel whenever you can.

Leaving you with a fun weather forecast to enjoy. Until I write again, stay well and stay happy.