Tuesday 27 october 2009
2
27
/10
/Oct
/2009
05:31
I know, I know, you’re thinking how do snow, aliens, and Big Island volcano tours fit together? But I’ve come to find
that Hawaii is an incredible and magical place, where the unimaginable seems possible and the impossible seems imaginable.
My first experience with a big island volcano led me on an incredible snow trek; hiking to well over 10 thousand feet to the top of Mauna Loa. There were 12 of us. There were lava fields, freezing temperatures, altitude sickness and snow. Lots and lots of snow.
I didn’t go to Hawaii thinking I would end up on top of the world’s largest mountain. I didn’t even know the Big Island was home to the world’s largest mountain. But I found myself late one night, on top of this foreign moonscape, with absolutely no signs of life in any direction. The stars appeared so close it was as if you could reach out and touch them with your hands.
And then I thought of aliens. That’s right, aliens. I’m not one usually given to thoughts of alien abductions, probes, and the like. But on that night, with the universe almost in my back pocket, I suddenly thought that aliens, if bent on visiting earth, would probably choose Hawaii. I mean, why wouldn’t they? I had. And here I was, standing on what appeared to be the closest runway, the nearest landing pad, to the galaxy.
I wish I could tell you of some further extraterrestrial encounters on top of that snow covered volcano, but I can’t. There was just a feeling of being something so small, on something so big, within something so vast.
And sometimes when life’s problems seem as big as big can get, I remember the top of that volcano, and that feeling. And Hawaii, as it always seems to do for me, offers me peace.
My first experience with a big island volcano led me on an incredible snow trek; hiking to well over 10 thousand feet to the top of Mauna Loa. There were 12 of us. There were lava fields, freezing temperatures, altitude sickness and snow. Lots and lots of snow.
I didn’t go to Hawaii thinking I would end up on top of the world’s largest mountain. I didn’t even know the Big Island was home to the world’s largest mountain. But I found myself late one night, on top of this foreign moonscape, with absolutely no signs of life in any direction. The stars appeared so close it was as if you could reach out and touch them with your hands.
And then I thought of aliens. That’s right, aliens. I’m not one usually given to thoughts of alien abductions, probes, and the like. But on that night, with the universe almost in my back pocket, I suddenly thought that aliens, if bent on visiting earth, would probably choose Hawaii. I mean, why wouldn’t they? I had. And here I was, standing on what appeared to be the closest runway, the nearest landing pad, to the galaxy.
I wish I could tell you of some further extraterrestrial encounters on top of that snow covered volcano, but I can’t. There was just a feeling of being something so small, on something so big, within something so vast.
And sometimes when life’s problems seem as big as big can get, I remember the top of that volcano, and that feeling. And Hawaii, as it always seems to do for me, offers me peace.
