Vancouver Eh 2014: Hilo, Hawaii

Friday 19^h September

Cruise Day 8 – Hilo, Hawaii.

OH MY GOODNESS. WHAT A DAY.

I opened my room this morning to an amazing view.

I collected my rental car for Dollar rentals. Was a fantastic medium sized car for $45. They have a shuttle at the dock. I saw other buses waiting until the bus had a few people in it, but mine let me in then drove off. Check in was very quick and easy. One of the easiest rentals I have ever done.

Then I drove back to the dock to collect Dad. They let me drive in and collect him at the taxi rank, right at the door to the big shed thingo. There is a disabled loading zone there.

We drove straight up to Volcano National Park. It’s about a 45 minute drive and was a really pretty drive. The vegetation is great and of course its very exciting to see the big clouds billowing out of the mountain.

Park entry was $10 for a car. The information centre had good maps etc.

Our first stop was at the Steam Vents. Ground water seeps down and hit the hot rocks, causing steam to escape. But not just steam. A few extras like make the stream not so good. There are a few vents near the road that are very accessible.

The women would ‘share the breath of Pele’, the Goddess of the Volcano by breathing in the steam. It is pretty safe at these vents. It’s the one closer to the volcano that are dangerous.

Then I left Dad in the car and walked down the path. The sign said it was only .5 to the rim. Easy “see you in 15 minutes”, but of course its not 500 metres each way. It’s .5 of a mile. Opps. I was a bit slower than that. You can wander off the track and get a really good look at the vents – and play in the steam!

We then drove along the Crater Rim Drive. It used to be a ring road around the volcano. But after the expansion of the volcano there is a horse shoe road with a huge area of the park out of bounds.

Next was Kilauea overlook where you looked down into the caldera and across to the actual crater. The caldera is massive. 4 x 3.5 kilometres or 2 x 2 miles with edges up to 120 m or 400 ft high. It was a bit of a hike up, glad I left Dad as part was quite steep. I don’t think he would have made it.

There was a man playing the violin – as you do – play your violin on a volcano. It was fantastic to listen as I trudged along.

It’s not a long walk and so worth it. The view was spectacular. You look down over the crater and it was MASSIVE. It was originally a lava lake but the floor collapsed in the 50’s. Must have been amazing.

The proper bush walk from the other side would be brilliant.

There is vegetation regrowing at the top. What a harsh battle that would be. Isn’t nature wonderful!

Kilauea Iki Overlook was next. Another stunning overlook. This is where the million dollar view of the crater lake was in the 50’s. Now you look down and see the cooled lava. With the big lense I could see people waling down there.

I talked with people who did this excursion and they hated it. The walking was very difficult over rough ground.

Thurston Lave Tubes – discovered in 1913 are down a lush valley filled with huge tree ferns. It is quite steep in and out with a few flights of steps. Many people turned back at the start of the steps but they missed out on something spectacular. I didn’t take my big camera and did regret it.

The walk in / out was stunning but then, these amazing tubes. They are where lava forces its way through then eroded at a different rate to the surrounding rock. It is hard to believe that they were not made by a huge mining drill. You could drive a good sized van through them.

Lava tubes are how much of the lava is travelling towards the sea that is currently threatening the settlement.

The drive back down the mountain was very easy. The roads are fantastic here. Brilliant surface. Hot mix but made with crush volcanic rock. Really smooth. And nice and wide, and well marker. Don’t hesitate to hire a car here.

Lunch was at a little diner type place were we had Apple Pie. We returned the car to the airport.

We checked in with Paradise Helicopters for our flight. Yahhh. Squeal with delight etc. Paradise are a locally owned and operated company and were great to deal with. We did the Volcanoes and Waterfalls tour. It was a 55 minute flight and was $234 each including a guaranteed window seat. We flew in the Bell Helicopter, which has better seats and WITH THE DOORS ON. We flew out over agricultural land including the Hershey’s Macadamia plantation and saw really nice heavy natural woodlands.

Then we saw the first of the lava. It is the flow that is slowly creeping towards the settlement of Pahoa. People living there have been given between 3 weeks to 3 months to get out with everything they want to keep. Scientist don’t know how long it will take as much of it is running underground. Pretty terrifying when you see this river of fire slowly moving towards the town.

The fields of cold lava were amazing. The patterns and textures were wonderful.

Then we saw the ‘skylight’. This is where a chunk of the top layer of old lave has collapsed, exposing the huge river of molten lave rush down. I don’t know how big it is but the distance form the old lave to the red lava is over 150 metres / 400 ft, so I suppose the hole is HUGE. And the size of the lava field is hard to comprehend.