After we ate and packed, we flew to the Big Island of Hawaii today. Unfortunately, we had to make a connection in Honolulu, so it took a while. We decided the upgrade to a 4WD vehicle given our plans to go to lava viewing and up a mountain. Once we got to Hilo, we stopped for lunch at a local place to eat.
Our bright, yellow 4WD jeep
We then went to our bed and breakfast (I didn’t find any good hotels and this place looked good). Once we got there, we were going over our plans with the owner. We were originally going to go down the coast, stop at a few places and then end up at the Lava Viewing place in the evening after sunset. He talked with us and explained that the Lava Viewing platform operated by the county was over a mile away from the lava and that you couldn’t see very much. Steve (the owner) mentioned that a friend of his was a guide and took people out on the lava field itself to get a close-up view. Since the main reason we went to the Big Island WAS to see the lava, we discussed it and decided to go ahead and do that.
We called Chris (the guide) and set up for a 4:00 AM-8:00 AM tour. We spent the rest of the afternoon (once we got situated) going around the coast around Hilo.
Our first stop was the Lava Trees state park. It was a beautiful drive getting there and the park was almost like a garden. The lava would come so quickly that they would surround the tree and leave a form of it.
The road to the coast
You gotta love warning signs like this in a park!
Some of the cool flowers
I love these trees. Hard to believe that lava came through here.
More pictures of the park
We really liked this road on the coast.
We then went to the point furthest east in the Hawaiian islands. They have an air monitoring station there because it is (supposedly) the freshest air anywhere. It doesn’t have any other habitated places for thousands of miles, so there is no human activity in the air (i.e., no pollution). Well, to me it smelled dusty, but it was still neat and the coastline is all lava. A huge flow came through there about 20-25 years ago and the road is literally on top of the lava.
We continued down the Puna coast and stopped a few times to view the shoreline. This area has been devastated by lava quite a few times and it shows. Yet, people still live in the area because it is so beautiful. We took the road all the way to the end (literally). It stops at one of the more recent flows and has a new black sand beach. The locals have planted palm and coconut trees to try and bring it back to what they used to have. The area that was destroyed 20 years ago was one of the most beautiful in the island (supposedly).
The new black sand beach
Knowing that we had to wake up at 2:30 AM, we decided to head back early. We had dinner at a Mexican restaurant in Pahoa. Pahoa is the hippie part of the Big Island and they had a lot of interesting characters in the restaurant.
We were very excited about the next morning and did our best to get to sleep so we wouldn’t be dead in the morning!
No comments:
Post a Comment