Into the freezing weather

It's hard to believe in this island paradise of Hawaii, but this morning we ventured into the cold and the wind. Dressed in the warm clothes we had especially brought with us, we were loaded into our transport bus at 3.45 am, for the journey to Haleakala National Park, where we were to observe sunrise over the volcano. Haleakala, the house of the sun, is a particular type of volcano that I cannot remember the name of, and erupts about every 100 years, and is overdue for an eruption.
We travelled 9475 feet above sea level to see the sunrise, unfortunately, there was a lot of cloud cover over the crater of the volcano, and our view was not clear. It was absolutely freezing, around -10 c degrees, including the wind chill. We needed snow gear for that wind, I can assure you.

Because of the cloud cover, photography was most difficult, and this is about as good as it gets. It didn't help that people were milling around three deep at the rail overlooking the volcano crater either; all shivering, and with all manner of methods to keep warm, from hats and coats, to towels and blankets from the ship wrapped around them.
Of course, each and every one of them had a camera or video recorder, many on selfie sticks, so it was difficult to find your own little patch of sky to photograph as well.



This plant, called a swordplay, and grows only in the Haleakala National Park.




On returning to the ship, after having a late breakfast we headed off to the Queen's Shopping mall in the free shuttle bus. We did not spend long there, coming back to the ship for a very welcome sleep in the afternoon. We enjoyed the entertainment in the Hollywood theatre after dinner, and strolled around the deck for some exercise.
This cute little elephant was our guest tonight.





Posted from another day in Paradise