Kilauea Iki

I got up around 6:15am and ran outside on Deck 6, which goes all the way around the ship. Three laps around the ship = 1 mile. As I was coming around the ship on one of my laps, I saw a rainbow on the shore of the Big Island, where we would land around 8:00am. It was awesome!! Jarrett hasn’t seen a rainbow yet, and I am of the opinion that he must see one before we leave!

We ate breakfast at the Aloha café, and then headed off board to meet our group for the Volcano Hike excursion. There were 10 of us, and we were interested that one of the men in the group wore what looked like loafers in which he planned to hike 4 miles through the Kulauea Iki crater. I guess we’d see how that worked out!

It was about a 45 minute drive into Volcanoes National Park. We got to see some of the countryside in Hilo, including sugar cane and orchids, some of the big agriculture grown there. Our tour guide was very informative through the whole tour, and on the way up to the National Park she discussed that there was quite a bit of land available on the Big Island, but that you took a varying risk depending on where you bought land – lava might travel through your back yard at some point! The whole island is mapped out in grids, with 9 being the safest and 1 being the least safe. Most of the land we traveled on the way up to the National Park was rated a 2 or 3. Guess that’s why you can buy an acre for about $15,000!

When we got up to the National Park, it was about 9 degrees cooler than where we were when we started, since we were about 3000 feet about sea level. Our tour guide mentioned that they estimate that it is 3 degrees cooler per 1000 feet traveled up. We could see the crater from the parking lot – amazing! There’s pretty much a forest that has grown up around where the volcano erupted in the 1950’s. We got backpacks, water, our lunches and hiking sticks, and headed to the Thurston Lava Tube. We learned that a lava tube forms when the top of a lava flow cools, and then the area around a tube cools, allowing lava to flow through the tube and out to form new land. Lava has flowed through the Thurston Lava Tube at least three times, according to geologists – lava will travel through the easiest route, and a lava tube is a very easy route. At points the lava tube has collapsed, and according to our guide, should there be a lava flow, you could stand above the collapse and watch the lava flow through the tube. Too cool!

We saw quite a few tropical plants and trees well suited to grow in new land formed by a volcano. One type of tree is surrounded by legend – supposedly the goddess of fire, Pele, wanted to be with a beautiful man on the island, and when he refused her, she turned him into a tree. The man’s wife was so upset, she begged the gods to re-unite them, so they made his wife a beautiful red flower on the tree. The tree was found in several locations on the crater, and it is said if you pick a flower off the tree, it will rain, because the lovers cry when they have been separated. There’s another bush that has berries which the state bird, the nene (a form of goose) walks around the crater to eat. The guide said no nenes some to that crater, and she found some ripe berries, so we got to try one! They were sort of like a tart blueberry.

Another legend: all of the lava rock are Pele’s children; if you take one of her “children,” she will do whatever she can to get her children back – which includes giving you bad luck until you send the rock back to Hawaii! This convinced me not to take any rocks, and with some persuasion, convinced Jarrett too – ha! ;)

So after the lava tube we hiked down the forest to the rim of the crater, and then across the crater toward where the lava flowed out. The crater was basically a lake of lava, and the lake settled down into the earth to form new land. Magma was flowing under the lake until the mid-1980’s, and the land is still warm – steam flows through cracks in the crater after it rains. Since it was morning, some of the dew caused steam to flow, and we got some cool pictures of the steam. The whole crater is about 1 mile across, with smooth lava to begin and then rougher cooled lava as you walk out the other side of the crater. Note: if you decide to take this hike, don’t wear loafers like the man I mentioned above – he took a hard fall in the rough lava section, during which he tore his shirt and cut up his hand – ouch!

After we walked out of the crater, we noticed some yellow and red flowers which we later learned were a form of ginger bush. These flowers aren’t native to the island – they were brought over by a ranger, and now they are starting to push out native ferns and the like because they have a tendency to take over! Bet that ranger is sorry!

It was about a mile back to the van, where we had some macadamia nuts and soda/juice, then we jumped in a drove a little more through the park, saw another crater, and then headed back to the boat. Once on board we enjoyed a snack at one of our favorite restaurants, the Cadillac diner; went back to the room (where Jarrett had sent me Hawaaian flowers - beautiful!!), got cleaned up, then went to wine happy hour at Pink’s Champagne Bar. After that we had a fun Italian meal at Little Italy restaurant on the ship, then headed to bed so we could be up early to pick up our car and do the ride to Hana! So, until the next blog, Aloha!