My husband and I booked a cruise in Hawaii and the cruise started in Honolulu for two days and then moved onto Hilo for two days and then Kona for two days. By staying overnight this gave us the opportunity to book this nighttime tour of the Mauna Kea Summit so that we could see the sunset. We were picked up a short distance from the pier in a van by a really pleasant young man named Jamie. He pick up several couples at this location and then drove about a half hour to a second site where he picked up two more couples. We then drove another hour to a meeting point where we were transferred to two 4x4 vehicles driven by Robert and Jessica who also happen to be husband and wife. During the first drive Jamie was very informative about the landscape and many different names for Hawaiian sites and landmarks. I asked about the large groups of goats that were clustered on both sides of the road. He said that they came here with adventurers. Since they have no natural predators they have just continued to multiply.
Once we transferred to the 4x4 vans my husband and I were in Robert's van and we proceeded to the Visitor's Center where we stayed for about a half house so we could use the bathrooms and acclimate ourselves to the altitude. There is a small gift shop and the rangers speak to anyone who is planning to drive to the summit independent of a tour. Robert confessed that he is a bit of "geek" when it comes to the entire area and the need to respect Hawaiian heritages and traditions. He and Jesse met in college and they both love the study of stars. As we passed the building that the rangers stay in during their three-day shifts. They have identified a plant that produces a pod that is poisoness to everyone but a small bird who's population has seriously decreased. He and his wife spend time on their days off at the ranger's station cultivating these plants so that they can be planted to try and encourage these birds come and feed there so that their population will hopefully incease. As we traveled up the side of the summit, driving on one switchback to another the views were spectacular. We pulled into a small road that led to a radio dish that Robert told us is connected to several other similar dishes that collect and share data. While we were there Robert took pictures of each couple with our own cameras and he shared information about the radio dish and gave us some time to get used to the change in temperature and admire the view. He also showed us several rocks and explained how each rock was developed.
We saw so many amazing views of the sun and slowly climbed above the clouds to the point where we were well above them and then finally on the summit surrounded by huge telescopes places there by large companies. When we exited the van I noticed immediately that when I would take a step it felt like my legs from the ankle up felt like they were wobbling. The temperature was also so much colder, especially as the sun set. Robert pointed out porta-johns for us to use and they were every bit as bad as I have often imagined, but we used them out of necessity. Robert offered us parkas and gloves, which we gladly accepted. The only disappointment was that the view was not as clear as the picture on the Viator site due to all of the vans and cars parked everywhere that blocked our views when taking photographs. We watched the sunset for about 25 minutes and then we boarded the van again and traveled partway down the mountain to a road where we parked and Robert and Jesse set up a table with hot chocolate and several snacks. Robert talked about the various star formations while is wife, Jesse, set up a camera so that she could take night time pictures taken for each couple which they later emailed to each of us showing us with the beautiful nighttime sky behind and above us.
Robert and Jessie then drove us back down the mountain and we met up with Jamie and transferred to his van. Jamie then drove us the rest of the way down to our pick-up spot. There was one couple on the van with us who was also on the same cruise ship as us, so he took back to the pier so we did not have to walk in the dark or pay for an Uber to get back to the ship.