Hawai'i - Beaches, Forests, Mountains and Volcanoes

Further along there is Kealakekua (Road of the God) Bay – not very well signposted. This was where Captain Cook landed on 17/1/1779 and was killed on 4/2/1779. A 27 foot obelisk of marble was erected as a monument to him at the northern end of the bay. The monument is only accessible either by boat or by a rugged trail from near the town of Captain Cook. Don’t try and swim across to it (1 mile) as the sharks consider this area as part of their dining room. The area around the monument may still be under British rule. The bay is part of the Napoopoo Beach County Park and is a Marine Life Conservation District particularly well known for scuba and snorkelling – as long as you don’t swim out to the open ocean around the monument!


Another famous part of the island is Volcano National Park. It's exactly what it says. This is the famous area where the volcanoes have been erupting for thousands of years and are still active. We stayed at a Lodge/hotel in the village of Volcano and the Lodge had dozens of beautiful long haired cats – and they knew it! In all the parking areas there are signs warning you to check your car for cats before driving away. There is even a cushion on the top of the in-tray on the office desk where one of the cats sleeps.



There are a number of roads to drive on that take you around the rim of the craters, such as Crater Rim Drive and Chain of Craters Road. There's also a walking trail called Devastation Trail. The Trail was named after the devastating series of eruptions in 1959 when the dense rain forest was completely wiped out.

The eruptions produced both Pele's hair, the geological term for threads or fibres of volcanic glass, formed when small particles of molten material are thrown into the air and spun out by the wind into long hair-like strands, and Pele's tears, produced when airborne particles of lava cool and harden in the shape of teardrops of volcanic glass. Pele was the Hawai'ian goddess of volcanoes.


When walking on lava you should wear long trousers in case of tripping on the lava and always wear stout shoes. Some books advised wearing gloves if walking on lava in case you trip up.

There are two types of lava, a’a and pahoehoe . A’a is very rough and chunky and is slow moving – if you fall over on this type of lava you will know why it is called a’a. It can rip your flesh to pieces. Pahoehoe is much smoother with, sometimes, a ropy look and is formed by fairly quick flowing lava. The difference in appearance is also caused by the different amount of gases still in the lava when it is hardening.

Some of the craters are very large but most of the current ones are nowhere near as deep as they used to be. This one is the Kilauea Iki Crater (little Kilauea) and is 400ft deep and is the one that caused all the devastation in 1959.





And I went for a wander down into it.




The forests that were destroyed by the eruptions were mainly giant fern and ohi'a trees. The ohi'a are in the myrtle family, can grow up to 100ft high and have lovely red fluffy flowers. They're usually the first things to grow back through the lava. They've only just discovered that a new form of fungus is killing the trees - rapid ohi'a death (ROD)


It's fascinating, and eerie, walking across the crater. you can see that the lava here is pahoehoe





There are a lot of craters and you can see that this one has some a’a as well as pahoehoe







The big Kilauea Crater is massive but not easy to photograph because of the rain forest

 

Due to continuous eruptions and lava flows there is a constant alteration to the landscape. Roads get covered in molten, slow moving, lava and you can see road signs sticking up out of the lava. Some villages even get completely wiped out.

Depending on where the current flowing lava is you find that a lot of people go there from dusk and into the night to watch the lovely red glowing lava. We went to have a look but the nearest flowing lava was 2.5 miles from the road. The Rangers said it could be dangerous because of the rough ground (lava) underfoot and that the round trip takes at least four hours.

So we decided that discretion was the better part of valour (and we were booked into a restaurant for dinner ). So we just wandered around the nearby lava flows and stopped where 200ft of road had been covered.



There are a lot of lava tubes (not lava lamps)
A lava tube is a natural conduit formed by flowing lava which moves beneath the hardened surface of a lava flow. Tubes can be actively draining lava from a volcano during an eruption, or can be extinct, meaning the lava flow has ceased and the rock has cooled and left a long, cave-like channel.

The most famous of them is Nahuku (known as the Thurston Lava Tube).

These cooled tubes tend to be hidden in the rain forest which has grown up over the years since the local eruption.





Paths have been laid through the forest and to the tubes



You can see that the tube is pretty big.


Just around the entrance plants are growing quite happily


And the roots of the ferns grow straight down through the ceiling of the tube


As you go down into it you can see the Trees/ferns grow right to the edge


And inside, you can see how massive it is.

 

Some info about one of the craters (fairly typical of what occurred/occurs in the area)



Rainbows were quite common around the park because of the prevailing weather conditions - there are regular short showers. So you can just be wandering around and suddenly a rainbow appears.





It's not unusual to see rainbows in most places in the world but you rarely get the chance to look down on them instead of up.

This occurred in one of the craters whilst we were on the rim.




In the previous posts, when walking across the crater, it was steam that was coming out of the lava but there are also sulphur fumaroles.

you can see the red rock covered in the greenish yellow sulphur.

 

Turtle Independence Day

This is the day, each year, that young turtles are released into the ocean. These are the Hawai’ian Green Turtles (honu) that the Oahu Sealife Park, in conjunction with the Mauna Lani Bay Hotel, are trying to raise the awareness of, to the public, as they are an endangered species. Since 1989 the Resort have been receiving young turtles from the Park and raising them in their famous saltwater ponds. When they have reached suitable size to be released they are set free into the ocean on the 4th July.

We went down to the beach at the Mauna Lani Bay Hotel to see the release and the attendant celebrations. A section of the beach, and sea, was roped off where the release was going to take place. On the grounds around it were stalls and shows and lots of entertainment for children which went on before and after the release.

There were speeches, the ceremony and songs and dancing. The dances were some of the traditional Hawai'ian ones and told about the local legends and the turtles. These photos don't do it justice

The turtles are taken, one at a time, down to the sea and they are always carried there by children.


They are carefully lifted out of the hammock and placed gently into the water


Trying to get a photo of them swimming away is almost impossible as they immediately go under the water and swim like hell!


There was one adult turtle just sitting on a rock watching


These photos of the dancing don't make it look very elegant but they are traditional ones that tell the story of the turtles and the gods.

The women and the men do their dances separately.









Afterwards we returned to our condo (only half a mile away) for a rest before going back to Mauna Lani Bay for the evening entertainment down near the beach. We were lucky enough to be there for the performance by master Kumu Hula, John Ka’imikaua and his Halau Kukuna’okala who presented traditional hulas until sunset. The performance is something that we shall never forget.

When I say that we were lucky it is because John had been very ill and they were not sure that he would be able to come from Oahu (he died not long afterwards). He was 45 years old with white hair and a young face but weighs, probably, over 500 lbs. He told traditional stories, played the drums and sung whilst his performers danced the Hawai’ian interpretation of the stories. He has one of those rare speaking voices that has depth and feeling and this, coupled with the way he presented the stories, held the audience spellbound. The performance continued until the sun had almost completely set. Then everyone wanted to congratulate him and talk with him.

 

Just a few odd pictures

At one of the local shopping centres there were some impromptu Ukulele lessons



Some cars had turned up from all over the world for a classic car show (we were only just passing through )



In the grounds of a hotel


Then we had to, sadly, fly off into the sunset








In what other land save this one is the commonest form of greeting not “Good Day”.... but “Love?” .... Aloha .... It is the positive affirmation of one’s own heart giving.
- Jack London, 1916

 

@TMAK What a wonderful place for a honeymoon

Depending on what type of holiday you want when you go back I'd think seriously about one of the other islands.

Waikiki certainly has the day and night life. Kauai has the peace and tranquillity and Big Island has a mixture of both. Then there's Maui, which I haven't covered here as I haven't any photos of it (they're on negatives and it's too tedious to transfer them). Maui is also the place that mixes beauty with the jet set life - I'm a bit past that nowadays .