Storyteller717897
Dec 2024
The tour took us almost 7 hours to finish from pick up to drop off. Our hosts were kind enough to pick us up from SCP Hilo instead of naniloa hotel. We drove with Jessica. She narrated a lot of Hawaiian stories and folklore. I loved the Pele stories. The drive was not boring. She made it knowledgeable, interesting and fun. She has a good sense of humor. We stopped for a beautiful sunset which I agree is one of the top five sunsets of my life. I saw the observatories from up above which was really special for me. We got acclimatized at 9000 feet elevation by walking around a small trail to give our lungs and body a chance to get familiar with the altitude. We then reached the top of the Mauna Kea summit. And we saw the Milky Way with our naked eye and Saturn, Jupiter and Venus. Rob setup the telescope and showed us a lot more in terms of the Vega, Triangulum, the seven sisters, Aries, Aquarius, Scorpio, dolphin constellation. He told us the Hawaiian names of the stars, planets, constellations. He also told us the Hawaiian stories, pointed to us the Hawaiian star links which was fascinating and new. It also makes sense because Hawaiians were the original nautical, sea navigators who were proficient in studying the skies. I would recommend this tour to everyone coming to big island. A little pro tip would be to sync your travel with the moon cycles. We went on a night where there was no moon, so we saw everything clearly. Mahalo Mauna Kea for letting us spend an amazing evening looking at the skies.