Science trip to Hawaii
Twelve students accompanied by Mr. Smith and Mr. Wood spent 12 days on the road in Hawaii over the June-July holidays. The excitement of flying to Hilo, Hawaii, was dampened somewhat by the delay in our departure (Auckland border clearance) resulting in having to wait three hours before the next available flights from Honolulu. In Hilo we stayed at a travellers lodge with pretty much ‘the run of the house’ planning and preparing our own meals and getting used to ‘strange’ roommates. The group bonded and learned how to shop, prepare and clean up as a group.
From this base we travelled to a now quietened Kilauea caldera (missed flowing lava by three days) continuing down to the coast to see where the lava flows into the ocean. We did a four kilometre hike/run (one-way) out to a green sand beach located near the southernmost point of the USA, and we also reached the summit of Mauna Kea (considered the world’s highest mountain). It was all spectacular!
Down in Hilo we visited the Subaru Telescope Ground Station, toured the University of Hawaii at Hilo and worked on the flight simulators (learning who we might not consider driving/flying with). Earlier we had met up with some friends of Mr. Wood who are engaged in international disaster response and resilience work.
The transfer to Honolulu and the University dormitories took a long time – seven hours – however we were within minutes of Waikiki Beach and downtown Honolulu. Accommodation was now different, towers to house a lot of students. The Moana campus has approximately 23,000 students. On our last evening we met Tom Beattie, Rosmini Old Boy who had just arrived to play basketball for the University.
Being around the July 4 National Holiday most of the university facilities were closed with faculty on vacation. Our teachers then provided an incentive in the form of a giant treasure hunt around the sprawling campus. We not only had to photograph different faculty buildings but also complete some tasks such as interviewing three people, skip rope in the gym, play a musical instrument and report back on time. Sam and Dominic won the $US50 prize.
One worthwhile visit was our tour around the Department of Mechanical Engineering with a very switched on fourth-year student. Key ingredients for success: Finish every project and learn how to manage your time.
There was always a beach nearby. Some had black sand, some white and one even green sand. We had Waikiki Beach to ourselves at the end of the day.
We did find other high school age students, mostly girls from across the USA who were participating in a project locating and identifying turtles. We taught them to play touch rugby and we had a few games of football to close out our days.
Hawaii is beautiful. We had fun and we had our eyes opened to future opportunities and directions. Mahalo!
Mr Geoff Wood
