We had to get up really early the next morning for our Volcano Tour, but managed to squeeze in a quick breakfast at the hotel first. We were picked up by the tour bus again and this time taken to the airport where we caught a flight to Hilo - the main city on the Big Island of Hawai'i. This city has suffered at the hands of both tsunamis and lava flow in its time, so is an interesting one!
Our bus driver, Junior, born and raised on Hilo, was a bit of a character. Very "hang loose" tour guide, he almost drove off minus a couple of passengers a few times! He proceeded to tell us all about Hilo - from the amount of rainfall (138 inches/year on average) to the price of real estate (350-400k in the main town, but the closer you get to the volcano the cheaper it got, about 20-30k per acre).
All of the islands of Hawaii have been created with volcanoes and lava originally, but Big Island is the only island still with an active volcano. We drove to Rainbow falls first - with Junior telling us everything about Hilo that he knew.. he even sang his Alma Mater song for us.
Next on the route was Kalapana Beach. It used to be a really nice black sand beach, but was covered in lava back in 1983. Still has some black sand on the tips of it, and the lava has extended the land mass a bit here. It was about a 10 minute trek out to the ocean, again, well worth the effort for the view of waves crashing against the solidified lava rocks. People have rebuilt their houses on top of the lava, pretty crazy when you look out and see an expanse of lava, then houses built on it!
Next stop Thurston Lava tube, where we got to walk through an old lava tube. It is surrounded by rainforest. This was followed by another drive through lava encrusted fields, and we got to see lava trees. When lava flows and there are big trees on the land, lava goes around the tree trunk. The tree eventually burns down, leaving lumps and logs and hollow cavities behind, creating an interesting landscape. We also had a sift through the debris looking for Pele's Tears, teardrop like bits of lava that solidifies in the air when the lava is thrown into the air during an eruption. Then its on to Crater Rim Drive, where there are numerous collapsed crates along the way. We stopped by one of the vents puffing out steam for a quick "facial steam"! (hehe.. just kidding, but there was quite a bit of warm steam coming out of the vents). Lava rock is surprisingly porous, so rain water seeps through it and gets heated up, eventually coming out as steam in the vents.
After a stop for dinner at the Volcanoes Golf and Country club we headed to the Jaggar Museum and visitor centre. This is located at the top of the Kilauea Caldera, where we saw the glow of lava inside the volcano crater. It is slowly puffing out steam. Quite eerie to look at, knowing you are quite close to an active volcano. At the museum they have a seismometer to keep track of any earth tremors and inflation/deflation of the crater, which would help predict any potential eruptions. Each day there are over 100 tremors on the Big Island, which is so small it is not felt by humans.
After a long day, we head back to the airport for our flight back to Oahu.
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