Tuesday, August 14th - Road to Mauna Kea
I am usually not a fan of airports, but when we arrived at San Francisco International this morning, I was fairly optimistic of the travel conditions based on my observation that the terminal was rather empty. A little over an hour later, stuck in the “Odd-sized baggage” line, line number 51, that optimism had severely diminished.
Once we got our boarding passes and passed security inspection, we had a few quick moments to spare before boarding for our 8:55 departure. Everyone within the cabin was seeking seats on our side of the plane in hopes of catching a glimpse of the hurricane as we approached the Big Island. Sadly, the hurricane view was not as dramatic as we had hoped and we reached the Kona airport with minimal turbulence. The only “shake-up” we encountered was caused by the flight crew’s announcement that some of the baggage had not made it onto the plane from San Francisco upon
departure. The production team, especially our producer, was a bit upset at the potential hassle caused by not having our equipment for tomorrow's shoot, until the safe recovery of all of our baggage alleviated our worries.
From the Kona airport, we picked up our rental car, played "reality" Tetris in fitting all of our baggage
into the trunk and headed up the mountain. The changes in climate and terrain up to the10,000' Mauna Kea Base camp known as Hale Polaku (HP),our home for the next seven nights, were so distinct and varied. I had a blast just speeding along the rolling hills through pine trees, grass valleys, farmland and even some desolate cooled lava flows while we all hoped we got to our destination before any of the rain and wind from hurricane Flossie hit us.
Upon arrival to HP, we received our room keys and were escorted to our cabin to unpack and get
prepared for our week. We also took the opportunity before dinner to parooze the visitor’s center where we looked at all the goodies we will have the opportunity to purchase for our loved ones back home. The evening concluded with us sitting in the lodge, checking our e-mails from the day and adjusting to the altitude. Tomorrow, it’s back down the mountain to Hilo!