We had to wake up SUPER early on Friday morning...like 2:00AM early. We probably only ended up getting a few hours of sleep. We had to get up early because we were being picked up for our van ride up Haleakala to see the sunrise. After sunrise, we had plans to spend the morning biking down the mountain.
It was still dark by the time we got to the top of the mountain...probably sometime around 4:00AM or so. It was FREEZING cold. They gave us these horrible outfits to put on that were supposed to be warm...but they weren't.
I guess this is one of the best spots in the world for stargazing...and it truly was magnificent. We could see so many stars. There were tons of shooting stars too. The night sky was just amazing! As the sun rose, we were able to see that we were actually ABOVE the clouds:
Watching the sunrise was really beautiful. There were a lot of other people there, but it didn't seem too crowded.
Us:
After watching the sunrise, we went back to the van where we got all of our gear for the bike ride down the mountain. The guides made us go from smallest person to largest...because that would be the order that we would go down the mountain. Everyone pointed to me right away as the smallest! So I had to go first! I was nervous because I hadn't been on a bike in a while. I was fine once we got started though.
We had a guide leading the way and he watched us to be sure everyone was okay with our pace down the mountain. One girl was having a little difficulty keeping up, so I had to switch places with her. She ended up doing fine though and I think that we all had a great time!
At one point we stopped to rest and take photos. The guides made us pose for really silly photos. Here is a funny one of us:
The view:
The views were amazing the entire way down the mountain. I would say that this was probably one of the greatest things I have done...ever. It was wonderful!
When we were almost to the bottom of the mountain, we all stopped for brunch at Polli's Cantina in the small town of Makawao. We were starving by the time we got there! I think that I had a hot chocolate and a breakfast burrito.
We continued biking down the mountain, stopping at a pineapple field on the way. The guide told us a lot about the history of the island at our various stops. It was so nice to learn about. Eventually, we reached the ocean...our ending point!!
Here is a photo of us with the mountain that we had just biked down. We started at the VERY top!
Ahhh...the ocean (I have this first picture hanging above my desk in our apartment):