Day 9

We had the morning to explore Kona some more and found a really good cafe called 'buns in the sun' run by a man who loved talking to us about the UK. The food was fantastic and fresh. I had a papaya filled with yoghurt and granola for breakfast with freshly squeezed orange juice. This was also the place where we would be picked up for our afternoon/ evening excursion to see the observatories. We were picked up in a 4x4 mini bus and driven North and then East to ascend the second largest mountain in the Hawaiian Islands, Mauna Kea. As we were driven up we stopped off just above the cloud line to capture some photos of some snow capped mountains and take in the views. We were then driven up to 9,000ft to Parker ranch where we stopped to acclimatise at the visitors centre. Here we were given our dinner in a box and an Arctic parka. We enjoyed our dinner in a window seat while getting to know some of the other people on our tour. After eating our meal we got back on the bus to continue to the top of the mountain in time for sun set. When we reached 13,500ft we couldn't believe it as there was snow everywhere! The even more surprising thing was that there was trails in the snow where people had gone skiing and snowboarding! We got shown all of the observatories which were huge. They were all buzzing into action and whirling round to position themselves ready for when the sun went down. It was beautiful watching the sun go down at such an altitude. Another island of Hawaii was visible in the background and the sun set just beside it. After the sun had set we had to descend down to 9,500ft so we didn't interfere with the work in the observatories. Back down at this altitude it was still cold and there was still some snow. Our guide set up some telescopes so we could stargaze. Apparently Hawaii is one of the best places in the world to see the stars and it certainly didn't disappoint. Even with the naked eye the stars were amazing - with the Milky Way clearly visible. We were shown several stars close up and shown several galaxy's but for me the most amazing sight was when we looked at Neptune through the telescope and the rings were so clear. It was certainly one of the highlights of Hawaii. After looking at a few constellations we were given hot chocolate and cookies with Hawaiian macadamia nuts to heat up.