April 07, 2005
Hale akala "House of the Sun"
our home on Waikiki The Marc Suites on Lewers, above Prince Kuhio street Honolulu Oahu...We arrived here 4-7 for a few days of sighseeing. The hotel is so so and in somewhat of a disrepair... I wouldnt reccomend it... but we can sleep and rest there.
logged in at the "e-cafe" and outdoor cyber cafe on Seaside Ave Waikiki Honolulu Oahu 4-8-05
in the dim nearly forgotten time...Ka, the sun and,Mahina the moon made their own way across the sky with no thought to the peoples needs on the land below. The demi god Maui, son of Ku the god of the sky, stood on the highest mountain and with his rope lassoed the Sun, taming it. Ka the sun made a deal with Maui for his freedom... If Maui would release him, Ka would move in a regular pattern across the sky giving light and wamth to the people of the land. Mahina, the moon, respected the wishes of her husband and also regulated her times and seasons, creating the tides and feasting times... In gratitude for this blessing the people called the whole land "Maui" in their saviors honor, and the place where he captured the sun "Hale akala", the "house of the sun" to honor the the sacrifice of the moon her resting place was called Hale Mahina, the house of the moon and so the mountain of the upper portion of the land was named...
This is the first that I have been able to get blogger to come up in the three attemps in the last 48 hours. We have been really busy, and have seen a lot of things that we were hoping to while on Maui, and now Oahu.
on 4-6 Woody and I made the trek up the Haleakala Hwy to the top of Haleakala Volcano. Currently dormant this massive mountain boasts a caldera that is over 17 miles in diameter. My own Kilauea is only 4 miles across.
The trek up is exactly that... a trek. Not because of the roads... Maui is the most civilized place and boasts paved roads up to its pinnacle of splendor. Big Island's Mauna Kea with its bazillion dollar observatories only has steep unpaved roads... I think this is to keep us locals out. Haleakala's 22 miles of twisty two lane paved roads have a different deterrant. Once you drive into the National Park, the roads have no curbside barriers. You are quickly above the tree line and then the scrub line and the cloud line. The barren moonscape, flat road and twisty curves give you the sickening sensation of flying off the world into a cloudy abbyss... Scared the HELL out of us...Woody is doing all of the driving to avoid fussing and he crawled up the road in the center of the thing at 15 MPH. When you see the photos you will see why...
The first rest station was at 8200 feet, the second at 9000. At that point Woody didnt get out of the car. At the summit I was starting to get sick but at 10600 feet thats how it is... The air is blindingly clear and you can see all of the outer islands from this vantage on a clear day. The Big Island is clearly visible with both Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa both 13000 ft high rising above the clouds. It was a glorious sight.
