Leeza & Ray's Family: Exploring Hawaii

The Volcano National Park on the Hawaii Big Island was on top of the list of places we wanted to visit while on this trip. The prospect of seeing an active volcano was intriguing: it is not something one sees every day in NJ suburbs. Not only could we see the volcano, we could take a boat to the hot steaming lava. Laura and I made our plans for an overnight trip to the Big Island to see the lava, explore the Volcano National Park, and to discover one of the famous snorkeling areas. We could not imagine how much more there would be for us and that the trip would turn into a fantastic adventure we could not picture while planning it. In the next few seconds I will take you to see God at Work, to visit a small town which probably is not listed on most maps but is as full of life as NYC (well, almost), to the southernmost point of the United States, and to black sand beaches just to name a few. Ready? Lets go!

We arrived to the Big Island pretty late, upgraded out mid-size car rental for a hot red Mustang, and headed to the town of Pahoa . We had a very important purpose – get to our hotel and go to bed as soon as we could because next morning we had to be up and waiting for our group to go see the lava at 3:30 AM. Good plans… Pahoa did not look like every other sleepy small town. On the contrary, the place was hopping even very late at night.

After spending some time looking for the hotel owner (who also happened to own a pizzeria in town and at the time of our arrival was making pizza), we found our hotel, got settled, and went to explore the area. The quaint country inn had character. It was intriguing to navigate through nooks and crannies of our unit until we found another entrance (or exit) leading to a small backyard garden which also served as a hangout place for local cats.

We abandoned our thoughts of going to sleep and went for a walk through the town. We passed a local museum which featured a photography exhibition about a local Hula dance group. There was a jazz band playing at the museum and they were very good. We walked by small cafes, ethnic restaurants, a bookshop, a very busy and noisy pub, few small galleries, quaint shops and Akebono Theater – the oldest one in the state of Hawaii! We did not take pictures at the time, so I am including the link to another site which has good information about the town.
http://pahoahi.tripod.com/pahoa/pahoa.htm

Next day started with one of the most incredible adventures of my life. At 3:30 AM Laura and I were driving to meet the rest of our Sunrise Lava Tour group pondering two things. 1 – were we the only people in the whole world who got up at 3AM to see the lava? 2 – how could this be a Sunrise tour when everything was pitch black around us?

I would like to refer you to Laura’s blog entry about the tour and skip right to lava. Laura does a fantastic job describing the drama around huge waves and prospects of being eaten by a Great White which was apparently spotter in the area.
http://hawaii4-oh.blogspot.com/2009/05/hot-lava-on-big-island.html

Halema`uma`u volcano greeted us while we were still very –very far from our main destination. From our boat we could see long thin streaks of the scarlet hot lava flowing from the volcanic crater at the summit of Kilauea mountain. It was hard to define space and time because of how dark it still was. The sight of crimson streaks in the darkness was majestic. The sun was rising when we arrived to our destination. The air was getting warmer and warmer with every minute. We could see a large pillar of thick smoke rising from the ocean. And there it was – lava rushing to spill into the ocean to meet ocean bed to cool off and become new land.

Enlarge the picture above to see a dude who sneaked close to the lava. If he were caught, he would have paid $5K in fines. It is too dangerous to be that close to lava and hikers are turned back .5 miles away from the lava flow. He must have walked in the complete darkness to reach lava at sunrise. $5K is steep, but I support the adventure spirit!

Our captain mentioned that a chunk of the island that was about 50ft long was developed in just one week. I have never seen a one-week-young land - this was like watching God at work!!!

Water in the area was very warm. Surrounding us was not smoke and ashes, but steam which rises from the water. It is not harmful to one’s health. On the contrary, the fumes which are erupting from the crater are dangerous. Or so we wanted to think during our 30-minute-long intimate encounter with lava (check how close one of the boats is from the lava).

The trip was unforgettable! If you are ever in the area, treat yourself to this incredible experience! We liked the boat tour, so here’s the link to their site. http://www.lavaocean.com/

Since the moment we got back ashore until we boarded the airplane back to Oahu (5 minutes before the take off) we
went through a kaleidoscope of exciting events.

Feeling a little green but very happy we got back to land and followed one of our tour-mates to the local natural spring fed pool which is volcanically heated to a comfortable 90 degrees. The air around the pool has a slight sulfur smell. The water is very clear and we could spot fish. Just a narrow inlet separates the pool from the ocean. The pool is surrounded by coconut trees. As we were taking down the roof of our Mustang before leaving, we spotted a sign 'Watch for Falling Coconuts'. What a usefull warning! We stopped and watched, but could not see any falling coconuts :) Do not miss the Ahalanui Park if you are visiting Volcano National Park!

We started our journey to the West side of the big Island and on the way stopped in Manoa Loa macadamia nut plantation and factory (the most addictive food on Earth!) where we were hoping to see how the nuts are processed. We were especially interested in the chocolate-covered variety, but it seemed that the factory workers were having lunch as all machines were standing still.

We spent over an hour driving through the Volcano National Park. The countryside was black for miles and miles around as huge and small chunks of lava mixed together covering the land.

On our left was Pacific Ocean sneaking into the view every now and then and on our right were the volcanoes and magnificent Mauna Kea It is said to be the tallest mountain in Earth even taller than the Everest if you consider the over- and under-ground pieces. The top of this 13700 giant cannot be seen as it is covered by clouds but it is said that one can ski Mauna Kea. There are also astronomic observatories on top of the mountains which I hope to visit one day. As we continued south we stopped at the Black Sand Beach - Punalu'u and were entertained by a bale of sea turtles which were playing in the waves. Black sand on this beach was very sharp. Later I learned that the sharpness of black sand grains depends on how the lava it is made of enters the water. When extremely hot lava (750 to 1,250 degrees Celsius) flows directly into water, contact with cold water shatters it into small sharp pieces. On the other hand, if a stream cuts through an older lava bed it will break down the lava into smaller pieces but these will be more rounded since the water action is bumping them around against each other and the ground.

At the south of the Big Island is South Point - the Southernmost place in the US.While we did not visit it this time, we did stop at the Southernmost Bakery in the US and treated ourselves to some Southernmost pastries.

This was a non-stop adventure and if we wanted to, we could have stayed for days and see new places and experience new things. If you like to learn more about any of the places mentioned in this post, here’s some additional references:

Ahalanui Park
http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&um=1&ie=UTF-8&q=hawaii+lava+boat+tours&fb=1&split=1&gl=us&ei=jXguSoKPFpuNtgeB_LX5Cw&sa=X&oi=local_group&ct=image&resnum=1

Punalu’u – Black Sand Beach
http://www.volcanogallery.com/Places-Punaluu.htm

Volcano National Park
http://www.nps.gov/havo