It's no surprise why Maui is such a honeymoon destination. From testing your patience on Road to Hana to a breathtaking sunrise at 10,000 feet high on Haleakala, there's something to get your heart racing at any pace.
HIGH AT HALEAKALA
We initially joked about saving money by not getting a hotel room for one night and instead sleeping in the car. But by the time we stuffed the car with blankets, last minute purchases from Walmart, and drove to the top of Haleakala at 9pm... it was serious business. Our rationale was that 'we didnt need to sleep in nice beds if we planned on shooting some astrophotography at 3am anyways!' Like any haphazard decision, we were desperate and pumped with adrenaline. The plan was to ktfo in the parking lot with the heater blasted for a bit, sleep off the cold, and wake up at 3am to shoot the milky way.
When our alarms went off, so did my sanity. Erin's blanket started sparking with every flinch she made. I heard it before I saw it. Little crackles here and there. And when the tiny flashes of light made contact with my barely conscious vision, it became the funniest thing I'd ever seen. She moved her arm. Spark. HAHAHA. Another arm move. Spark spark. OMG IM DED. When I realized I could do it with the blanket I was bundled in, I completely lost it and started making the grandest of gestures to make optimal sparks. Rubbing the blanket fast recreated fourth of July right beneath my nose. Sherwin facetiously asked if I was drunk. (For anyone that knows me, you'd know that'd be the least possible scenario.)
My brain of mush and attention span of half-a-second finally realized the altitude was causing me to experience a mild form of hypoxia. From my many airplane science convos with Patrick, this one stuck out to me because you can literally feel 'high'poxic. The euphoria I was experiencing was merely my oxygen levels going down. I drank a bottle of water and 'sobered' up, but not until after I almost tripped on my own blanket on the unlit stairs and died of laughter again.
Astrophotography / light painting at haleakala
Two of my favorites from the batch. You don't even need long exposure to see it like this in person. We were so high up that the infinite sea of stars was visible to the naked eye.
ALi'I LAVENDER GARDENS
ROAD TO HANA
— evelyn, car camper on a natural high