Volcano

From Vancouver we flew to Hawaii. The American airlines are all battling bankruptcy, and are cutting costs at every possible corner. So we endured a 6 hour flight on North West airlines with no food! Fortunately we had suspected this would be the case and had eaten well (well, as well as you can at an airport without going bankrupt yourself!) before hand.

We spent just one night in Honolulu on the island of Oahu before flying to Kona on the island of Hawaii, the southermost of the Hawaiian islands, affectionately known as Big Island. Our goal was to find some lava, and volcanoes are only actively erupting on the southern end of Big Island.

The Hawaiian islands were formed one after the other by the movement of the crustal plates over a hot spot in the earths mantle. Magma from the hotspot erupts at the surface, slowly building an island. In another few thousand years a new island will appear south of Big Island, called Loihi. The type of eruptions that occur on Hawaii are not generally violent, and years of research allows pretty accurate prediction of new events on the currently erupting volcano, Kilauea, so volcano tourism is actually encouraged. It costs just $10 for a 7-day entry to the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, and camping is free!

Although the weather had looked promising on the day we arrived in Kona, a weather system moved in the next day (from Vancouver I bet!) and it started to rain. We had been told that the weather down at the coast was better, so we headed down there to view the huge steam and hydrochloric acid plume generated by the reaction of hot lava flowing into cold seawater. The road ends in a most dramatic way - in 2003 a lava flow cut right across it. From the end of the road it's a short walk across recent lava flows to the viewing point. Walking across a lava flow is something else - there is no vegetation, and the rock textures are still fresh and beautiful. The going is also quite rough and the new rock unbelievably sharp, so you really have to watch your step. The lava crunches underfoot and occasionally you drop a few cm as your foot breaks through a lithified bubble. While standing at the end of the marked path, a large group of hikers, sheparded by guides, passed us. It took a little convincing by Toby but eventually we decided to follow them because we were sure they were off to find some freshly flowing lava.

After two hours of hard walking we arrived at a skylight - a hole in the top of a lava tube. The hole was about 2 m in diameter, and about 2 m down into it we could see lava flowing rapidly towards the sea. The radiant heat coming off the lava was intense, such that you couldn't look at it for more than a few seconds. What a sight! While we were admiring the skylight, one of the groups guides told us that if we carried on for another 15 minutes, we would find a surface lava flow. Along with another intrepid couple we headed on, looking for heat shimmers on the horizon. The ground was feeling steadily hotter, and when the rain started we could hear the drops sizzling as they hit the ground! When we found the lava flow it wasn't what we expected - it was barely distinguishable from the solidified lava around it except that the moving edges glowed red, and the heat radiated from it. It moved rather sedately and we stood directly downstream of it watching it slowly approach us.

The guys took great pleasure in pushing sticks into the viscous surface and watching them catch alight. It was amazing watching the pahoehoe textures form. We arrived back at our car exhausted after our short 30 minute walk had turned into an epic 6 hour slog. As it started getting dark we could look back and see the glow of the lava on the horizon. Then the rain arrived.....

Camping when it's raining is not fun at any time. Camping when you get a 24 hour downpour of more than 200 mm of rain is really trying! Once again we were thankful for having invested in really good equipment, because somehow, through all that rain, our tent stayed dry. When we woke to gloomy skies the next day we decided to skip any hiking we had planned and go coffee tasting. Kona coffee is famous, really good and really expensive, but most coffee estates offer tours and tasting. When it was still raining the next day we decided to cut our losses, pack up our tent, do a quick combi geology exploration of the rest of the national park, and head to the north of the island where the weather was better. So we traded in volcanoes for a welcome bit of sunshine before heading back to Honolulu.

One of the more famous craters on Oahu is Diamond Head Park, a lovely walk giving a good view over Honolulu and the southern edge of Oahu Island. And then there's Hanauma Bay, a crater that is breached on one side allowing the sea to flow in to form a lovely warm, shallow bay that is extremely popular with tropical fish. It was a bit like swimming in an aquarium, with brilliantly coloured parrot fish, angel fish, trigger fish and many others in clear blue waters. A truly special spot.

Unfortunately there is only so much you can see in a week and our time was up without having got to see the famous north shore waves. Next time....

Now we head west until we're east, for the final leg of our travels.