I spent yesterday afternoon and the bulk of this morning lounging around the beaches in Hilo as Jamie left for Kaua'i. I'd organised a trip up to the observatories on Mauna Kea for this evening as from the guidebooks and tourist info office in Hilo they knew of no hiking trails to the area. I'd looked at doing a multi-day cabin to cabin hike on Mauna Loa, the active volcano that is a 4,000m peak just next to Mauna Kea but the track was closed due to volcanic gases (VOG) coming out of the cone. VOG is basially sulphur dioxide, not a good thing to have around when you're solo hiking. Perhaps I should have got an M98 as my going away present from Magellan and invested in some SO2 canisters.

Anyway as we drove through the cloud the guide pointed out several 'traditional' hiking trails on Mauna Kea used by Hawaiian people since their arrival on the island for various rituals performed on the mountain. He told me where I could get permits to climb and camp - which didn't do me much good as it was my last evening on the Big Island.

Once above the ever present cloud level the start hillside of Mauna Kea was very impressive, as you can see from the photos. We drove up to the observatories and parked to watch the sunset. Most of the group elected, after a brief walk around, to stay in the car where it was warm. I went off on a summit bagging exercise (20min walk) and to get some photos from a different angle.For the record Mauna Kea (4,205m) is actually the highest mountain on earth when measured from its base. It's a total height of 10,000m. So I've now been to the tallest mountain (if not the highest point!).

I will say that the sunset from the top was breathtaking, its the first sunset I've ever seen from the top of a big mountain as usually I've ascended early in the morning in time to see sunrise. The trip was definitely worth it!!!

Later that evening we got a talk on Polynesian navigation which was also pretty cool. Basically using the southern cross (in the south) and Polaris in the northern hemisphere the polynesians guided their canoes across thousands of miles of ocean to settle Hawaii. This is no mean feat at the time when Europeans were still building castles and paying tithes to their leige lords.

This sounds nerdy but I don't care. I got to see Saturn through a telescope and it was cool!