Sunrise at Haleakala

A sublime spectacle on the island of Hawaii

It was the month of November which means winter was setting in and skies were not clear. I was in Maui, Hawaii for 2 weeks now but every time I could book a 5 AM slot for sunrise at Haleakala, it would rain. Today was the last day and I did not want to go back to New York without witnessing the legendary sunrise lauded by Mark Twain himself for its healing tranquility.

Thankfully, I didn’t. Albeit it almost felt that way when I reached the summit and found myself surrounded by clouds. The clouds, which after all, only added to the spectacle by absorbing the shades of red and orange, as if adorning themselves to welcome back an estranged lover. Between the barren, almost Martian landscape and crimson clouds, the Sun eventually rose, its advent announced by the chants of locals performing their daily ritual.

The term Haleakala means “house of the sun”. Local myths recount how it was here where demigod Maui ensnared the Sun, slowing its passage so people had more time to dry kapa (cloth) and grow food. The daily chant is to honor this very myth.

Standing 10,023 feet (3,005 m) above Pacific Ocean, Haleakala is the highest peak on the island of Maui. But there is a lot more depth to this charmer — 19,680 feet (5,998 meters) more, below the sea level inside Pacific Ocean. From far out, it looks like a warrior’s shield lying on the ground. A colossal shield spanning 75% of Maui’s 727 miles. This shape is owed to the nature of the lava it is formed of — highly fluid, traveling farther like an untamed spirit during the eruption. And like every untamed spirit, it is misunderstood. What they call a “crater” is a unique shape attributed to the merger of the two valleys due to erosion.

To the west of me, in the clear, dry, pollution-free atmosphere, stood the “fourth-best” haven for the stargazers of the world, the Haleakala observatory. Standing amidst the ultra-dry, Martian landscape, this white dome like structure looks no less alien itself.

I used the word Martian twice. What makes this side of the mountain so dry when the other side on Kipahulu is considered the wettest place on Earth with dense bamboo forests and thundering Waimuku like falls. The cloud catcher tendency of the island of Maui that traps all the winds blowing from north-east for itself and literally leaves the summit high and dry.

But isn’t it wonderful that within 60 miles drive on the famous Road to Hana, a rainforest becomes a desert. The wet and the dry, the light and the dark, the good and the evil, all two sides of the same coin, or in this case, the same mountain. The Polynesian that arrived here in 1000 BC, understood that and held the high mountains peaks in greatest reverence, calling them wao akua — the realms of the gods.

After making us wait in the extreme cold for almost an hour, one of those gods finally made an appearance — the mighty Sun, sprinkling rays on the native Silversword — a rare plant found only on this tiny patch of Haleakala summit.

While adding to its glitter, the Haleakala Sun also filled my otherwise cold, numbing, half-asleep body with its healing warmth and light.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ogVj9hQyNg

PS: Due to the unpredictability of the Sun amongst the clouds, I couldn’t capture a video of the sunrise myself so linking this beautifully captured one from Youtube. Hope it will motivate you all to add this sunrise to the bucket list.