Tuesday, June 20, 2017

Hilo



Hilo


Hilo is our first port of call on the island of Hawaii, referred to as ‘the big island’ to avoid confusion.

Sue went shopping with Jamie while Phil had an awesome day traveling to the top of Mauna Kea. The mountain is 4200 metres above sea level and home to 30 optical and radio telescopes that are engaged in much of the most important astronomical research in the world. The weather on the big island is usually cloudy and often raining but today we were blessed with mostly clear skies and no rain. So the photos below are much better than we would normally be entitled to expect. Let them tell the story.

1 and 2. The Rainbow Falls

3. In the foreground is cooled lava from the 1984 eruption of Mauna Loa. In the background is grassland growing on top of an 850,000 year old lava flow.

4, 5 and 6. Views of the main observatories. It was awesome to be standing there above the clouds in the middle of a volcanic desert seeing these wonders of science and engineering.












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