December
18, Tuesday
Japanese gardens in Hilo
We head up to Rainbow Falls to begin with and we get a
whole 10 minutes to go out and take photos.
“Don’t go up the trail; we don’t have time for that.”
Rainbow Falls
Our next stop is at the macadamia nut factory and store where we are given 45 minutes… TO SHOP !
The macadamia trees are protected behind a wind screen of pine trees
There is a factory with windows through which we can see macadamia nuts being roasted, bagged and ready for shipping.
Sorting the good from the bad. I only take a quick look at the store since I already bought some macadamia nuts and Kona coffee on Oahu. I opt to walk through their gardens instead, even though the grass is soaked from the rains that have been falling all night.
Sugar cane. Wow ! Now that's really tall.
Bird of Paradise
Star fruit growing in a huge tree
After spending time in the gardens I still have time to get some Kona coffee flavoured ice cream.YUM !
Noni fruit or Morinda citrifolia, comes from the family Rubiaceae. This scientific family has about 80 different species of plants, but only 20 of these species have been identitified as having any significant economic worth or of being noteworthy in other ways. In fact, the one plant that stands out as the "queen" of the Morinda genus is noni. bumpy, pitted fruit that is several inches long. In thousands of individual experiences, I have seen how drinking noni juice, even in small doses such as one ounce, has helped relieve already existing symptoms as well as helped prevent the onset of others. (Increased energy levels, relief from chronic and severe pain, strengthening the immune system, helps treat eczema & psoriasis) They also mention that when combined with guava it helps to control blood sugar levels for diabetics. {I bought a bottle of lotion when I was on Oahu for arthritic pain in my wrists.}
Breadfruit is one of the highest-yielding food plants, with a single tree producing up to 200 or more fruits per season. In the South Pacific, the trees yield 50 to 150 fruits per year. The Hawaiian staple food called poi made of mashed taro root is easily substituted or augmented with mashed breadfruit. The resulting “breadfruit poi” is called poi ‘ulu. (In the mulberry family, related to the jackfruit: round, size of large grapefruit)
Beautiful rare varieties
vibrant colours
Can you believe this bearded green one?
They can ship plants all over the USA, but unfortunately not to Canada. Remy, my Philippina sister-in-law, is always on my mind when I see orchids.
Halemaumau is a crater, there is always smoke coming out of it.
The Kalauea Caldera looks like a moon scape!
The Kilauea Caldera is a closed area, even though a road runs through it. It is HUGE, measuring 3 km x 5 km. There are steam vents in a few areas, but the largest one is in the Halema’uma’u Crater within the Kalauea Caldera. {770 metres (2,530 ft) x 900 metres (2,950 ft) and is 83 metres (270 ft) below the floor of the Kīlauea caldera.} There are many other craters around; the area is filled with them. It looks like a moon scape out there, filled with craters everywhere, as far as the eye can see.
Kilauea’s eruptive history has been a long and active one; its name means "spewing" or "much spreading" in the Hawaiian language, referring to its frequent outpouring of lava. The earliest lavas from the volcano, date back to its submarine preshield stage, and have been recovered by ROVs from its submerged slopes; other flows have been recovered through core samples. Lavas younger than 1,000 years cover 90 percent of the volcano; the oldest exposed lavas date back 2,800 and 2,100 years. The first well-documented Kīlauean eruption occurred in 1823, and since that time the volcano has erupted repeatedly.
Halemaumau is a crater within the Kilauea caldera. It's floor is measured at 3,412 feet above sea level, whereas the floor of the rest of the Kilauea caldera is higher at approximately 3,640 feet (the rim near the Volcano House is at 3,980 feet). In 1924,when Halema’uma’u exploded (a crater within the Kilauea caldera), the blast hurled an 8 ton (8,128 kg) boulder 1,000 feet (304m) and doubled the width of the crater to ½ mile (800m).” 
This depicts the two types of lava flow: 1) pahoehoe: smooth, ropy surface usually 1 to 2 meters thick
2) aa: extremely rough, jagged surfaces, may be more than 10 meters thick.
Both types flowed from the same eruption, on the same day in 1972.
The goddess Pele (Artists Herb Kane) Her hair is depicted as lava flows!
There is a seismic centre at the museum and we can see live feeds from the seismographs; quite impressive!
I can see both Mauna Loa in the distance (20 miles away). At 9,300 meters (31,000 feet) above the ocean floor, it is the largest Hawaiian volcano, taller than Mount Everest. Technically, as far as volume size (10,000 cubic meters), it is the largest mountain on earth. It is 13,677 feet above sea level. Mauna Loa means “warrior’s shield”, that’s what the profile of the mountain looks like, its convex profile looking like a shield lying on the ground.
And Mauna Kea with its observatoriesWould have loved to have a chance to go in there!
Both photos taken from the parking lot at the Kilauea crater
We stop for a walk on lava rocks
The rest looks like..... wavelets.
This section was quite impressive, like pulled taffy. Beautiful. Nature's art work
It can be very dense with tiny air bubbles, or light with huge air bubbles
A small piece of petrified wood
Flip side is just lava (and no Hélène, I did not bring it back for you, it’s against the law to remove anything from here)
We drove back along Chain of Craters Road and made our way to the Thurston Lava Tube. “Natural conduits through which lava travels beneath the surface of a lava flow, expelled by a volcano during an eruption. They can be actively draining lava from a source, or can be extinct, meaning the lava flow has ceased and the rock has cooled and left a long, cave-like channel. Lava tubes or lava tunnels are a type of lava cave formed when an active low-viscosity lava flow develops a continuous and hard crust, which thickens and forms a roof above the still-flowing lava stream. Tubes form in one of two ways: by the crusting over of lava channels, and from pahoehoe flows where the lava is moving under the surface.
Lava usually leaves the point of eruption in channels. These channels tend to stay very hot as their surroundings cool. This means they slowly develop walls around them as the surrounding lava cools and/or as the channel melts its way deeper. These channels can get deep enough to crust over, forming an insulating tube that keeps the lava molten and serves as a conduit for the flowing lava. These types of lava tubes tend to be closer to the lava eruption point.
Further away from the eruption point, lava can flow in an unchanneled, fanlike manner as it leaves its source, which is usually another lava tube leading back to the eruption point. Called pahoehoe flows, these areas of surface-moving lava cool, forming either a smooth or rough, ropy surface. The lava continues to flow this way until it begins to block its source. At this point, the subsurface lava is still hot enough to break out at a point, and from this point the lava begins as a new "source". Lava flows from the previous source to this breakout point as the surrounding lava of the pahoehoe flow cools. This forms an underground channel that becomes a lava tube.
{Link this info to the night photos of active lava flowing when we sail away from the Big Island tomorrow night. The reason you see some red lava at the top of the mountain, and more at the bottom is that it disappears within lava tunnels in the middle of the mountain!}
We had a beautiful walk through the rain forest to get down to the level of the lava tunnel. The lava tube is more than 500 years old.
The entrance to the cave, or lava tube
Looks just like a tunnel, but it is huge
Reaching the other end
walking the loop through the rain forest, back to the bus
On the drive back, Rob our driver and guide tells us about the huge ranches that existed in the 1800’s where they had lots of cattle but no one to herd them. They hired cowboys from Mexico who could ride horses and herd cattle. The locals could not pronounce “Español” and it became “Paniol-o” instead, for Hawaiian cowboys.
Last look at the Kilauea Caldera from a different look-out point
On the drive back into Hilo, we stopped at the Big Island Candies factory & store. The name is a bit of a misnomer since they do NOT sell candies. They specialize in shortbread cookies; some dipped in chocolate, some are flavoured with macadamia nuts and then dipped in chocolate, or caramel, or both. YUM !
Dipping shortbread cookies in chocolate
Goodbye Hilo
At around 11 pm they announced that the lava flows were visible. Lucky, I could see them from my balcony, but I could not zoom into them for a good photo. This is as good as it gets!
We’ve arrived on the island of Hawai’i, the “Big Island”.
Talk about rough seas. The ship was
rolling all night long.
The excursion this morning is named “Volcano National
Park and Rainbow Falls”. We’re in a huge "Roberts" bus and drive through Hilo. Unfortunately, we don’t have a stop where we
can get off the bus, and it’s impossible to take photos through the windows.
Rainbow Falls
Our next stop is at the macadamia nut factory and store where we are given 45 minutes… TO SHOP !
The macadamia trees are protected behind a wind screen of pine trees
There is a factory with windows through which we can see macadamia nuts being roasted, bagged and ready for shipping.
Sorting the good from the bad. I only take a quick look at the store since I already bought some macadamia nuts and Kona coffee on Oahu. I opt to walk through their gardens instead, even though the grass is soaked from the rains that have been falling all night.
Sugar cane. Wow ! Now that's really tall.
Bird of Paradise
Star fruit growing in a huge tree
After spending time in the gardens I still have time to get some Kona coffee flavoured ice cream.YUM !
Noni fruit or Morinda citrifolia, comes from the family Rubiaceae. This scientific family has about 80 different species of plants, but only 20 of these species have been identitified as having any significant economic worth or of being noteworthy in other ways. In fact, the one plant that stands out as the "queen" of the Morinda genus is noni. bumpy, pitted fruit that is several inches long. In thousands of individual experiences, I have seen how drinking noni juice, even in small doses such as one ounce, has helped relieve already existing symptoms as well as helped prevent the onset of others. (Increased energy levels, relief from chronic and severe pain, strengthening the immune system, helps treat eczema & psoriasis) They also mention that when combined with guava it helps to control blood sugar levels for diabetics. {I bought a bottle of lotion when I was on Oahu for arthritic pain in my wrists.}
Breadfruit is one of the highest-yielding food plants, with a single tree producing up to 200 or more fruits per season. In the South Pacific, the trees yield 50 to 150 fruits per year. The Hawaiian staple food called poi made of mashed taro root is easily substituted or augmented with mashed breadfruit. The resulting “breadfruit poi” is called poi ‘ulu. (In the mulberry family, related to the jackfruit: round, size of large grapefruit)
We make another stop at the Akatsuka Orchid Gardens and
nursery, another opportunity to shop, but also to use the washroom facilities.
vibrant colours
Can you believe this bearded green one?
They can ship plants all over the USA, but unfortunately not to Canada. Remy, my Philippina sister-in-law, is always on my mind when I see orchids.
We continue driving on, up Highway # 11 and finally head
for the Kalauea Caldera area. We drive
around the north rim of the crater, to the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory and
Museum. We get a whole ½ hour to take
photos and rush through the Jagger Museum.
WHAT? REALLY? Un-flipping
believable. And it’s not because it’s
Robert’s Tours, the Polynesian Tour buses from the cruise ship do exactly the
same thing.
The Kalauea Caldera looks like a moon scape!
The Kilauea Caldera is a closed area, even though a road runs through it. It is HUGE, measuring 3 km x 5 km. There are steam vents in a few areas, but the largest one is in the Halema’uma’u Crater within the Kalauea Caldera. {770 metres (2,530 ft) x 900 metres (2,950 ft) and is 83 metres (270 ft) below the floor of the Kīlauea caldera.} There are many other craters around; the area is filled with them. It looks like a moon scape out there, filled with craters everywhere, as far as the eye can see.
“Mount Kīlauea is one of five subaerial volcanoes that make up the island of Hawai’i, created by the Hawaii hotspot: Kohala, Hualalai, Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa & Kilauea. The oldest volcano on the island, Kohala, is more than a million years old, and Kīlauea is the youngest. There is a sixth volcano growing under the ocean near the island of Hawaii: Loihi, the newest volcano is still 1 km below the sea level.
Kilauea, (1277 m /4,190 ft above sea level) a shield volcano in the Hawaiian Islands, is the most active of the five volcanoes that together form the island of Hawai’i. Located along the southern shore of the island, the volcano, at 300,000 to 600,000 years old, is the second youngest product of the Hawaiian hotspot and the current eruptive center of the Hawaiian–Emperor Seamount Chain. Because it lacks topographic prominence and its activities historically coincided with those of Mauna Loa, Kīlauea was once thought to be a satellite of its much larger neighbor. Structurally, Kīlauea has a large, fairly recently formed caldera at its summit and two active rift zones, one extending 125 km (78 mi) east and the other 35 km (22 mi) west, as an active fault line of unknown depth moving vertically an average of 2 to 20 mm (0 to 1 in) per year.Kilauea’s eruptive history has been a long and active one; its name means "spewing" or "much spreading" in the Hawaiian language, referring to its frequent outpouring of lava. The earliest lavas from the volcano, date back to its submarine preshield stage, and have been recovered by ROVs from its submerged slopes; other flows have been recovered through core samples. Lavas younger than 1,000 years cover 90 percent of the volcano; the oldest exposed lavas date back 2,800 and 2,100 years. The first well-documented Kīlauean eruption occurred in 1823, and since that time the volcano has erupted repeatedly.
This depicts the two types of lava flow: 1) pahoehoe: smooth, ropy surface usually 1 to 2 meters thick
2) aa: extremely rough, jagged surfaces, may be more than 10 meters thick.
Both types flowed from the same eruption, on the same day in 1972.
The goddess Pele (Artists Herb Kane) Her hair is depicted as lava flows!
There is a seismic centre at the museum and we can see live feeds from the seismographs; quite impressive!
I can see both Mauna Loa in the distance (20 miles away). At 9,300 meters (31,000 feet) above the ocean floor, it is the largest Hawaiian volcano, taller than Mount Everest. Technically, as far as volume size (10,000 cubic meters), it is the largest mountain on earth. It is 13,677 feet above sea level. Mauna Loa means “warrior’s shield”, that’s what the profile of the mountain looks like, its convex profile looking like a shield lying on the ground.
Both photos taken from the parking lot at the Kilauea crater
We stop for a walk on lava rocks
Talk about a strange landscape; it looks like slabs of pavement that have been thrown up.
The rest looks like..... wavelets.
This section was quite impressive, like pulled taffy. Beautiful. Nature's art work
It can be very dense with tiny air bubbles, or light with huge air bubbles
A small piece of petrified wood
Flip side is just lava (and no Hélène, I did not bring it back for you, it’s against the law to remove anything from here)
We drove back along Chain of Craters Road and made our way to the Thurston Lava Tube. “Natural conduits through which lava travels beneath the surface of a lava flow, expelled by a volcano during an eruption. They can be actively draining lava from a source, or can be extinct, meaning the lava flow has ceased and the rock has cooled and left a long, cave-like channel. Lava tubes or lava tunnels are a type of lava cave formed when an active low-viscosity lava flow develops a continuous and hard crust, which thickens and forms a roof above the still-flowing lava stream. Tubes form in one of two ways: by the crusting over of lava channels, and from pahoehoe flows where the lava is moving under the surface.
Lava usually leaves the point of eruption in channels. These channels tend to stay very hot as their surroundings cool. This means they slowly develop walls around them as the surrounding lava cools and/or as the channel melts its way deeper. These channels can get deep enough to crust over, forming an insulating tube that keeps the lava molten and serves as a conduit for the flowing lava. These types of lava tubes tend to be closer to the lava eruption point.
Further away from the eruption point, lava can flow in an unchanneled, fanlike manner as it leaves its source, which is usually another lava tube leading back to the eruption point. Called pahoehoe flows, these areas of surface-moving lava cool, forming either a smooth or rough, ropy surface. The lava continues to flow this way until it begins to block its source. At this point, the subsurface lava is still hot enough to break out at a point, and from this point the lava begins as a new "source". Lava flows from the previous source to this breakout point as the surrounding lava of the pahoehoe flow cools. This forms an underground channel that becomes a lava tube.
{Link this info to the night photos of active lava flowing when we sail away from the Big Island tomorrow night. The reason you see some red lava at the top of the mountain, and more at the bottom is that it disappears within lava tunnels in the middle of the mountain!}
We had a beautiful walk through the rain forest to get down to the level of the lava tunnel. The lava tube is more than 500 years old.
The entrance to the cave, or lava tube
Looks just like a tunnel, but it is huge
Reaching the other end
walking the loop through the rain forest, back to the bus
On the drive back, Rob our driver and guide tells us about the huge ranches that existed in the 1800’s where they had lots of cattle but no one to herd them. They hired cowboys from Mexico who could ride horses and herd cattle. The locals could not pronounce “Español” and it became “Paniol-o” instead, for Hawaiian cowboys.
On the drive back into Hilo, we stopped at the Big Island Candies factory & store. The name is a bit of a misnomer since they do NOT sell candies. They specialize in shortbread cookies; some dipped in chocolate, some are flavoured with macadamia nuts and then dipped in chocolate, or caramel, or both. YUM !
Dipping shortbread cookies in chocolate
Goodbye Hilo
Decided to go to one of the dining rooms tonight and was asked if I wanted to share a table. Hum? Sure, why not! I was seated with two other ladies who turned out to be sisters-in-law. One of them was travelling with her son and his family, and she had invited her sister-in-law to come along and share a room. We had an interesting conversation during dinner and that was nice for a change; I`ve been eating alone most nights.
That evening, we leave the Hilo side of the island and head around the southern coast of Hawai`i. We should be able to see the lava flows from the Pu u Oo Vent, below Kilauea crater, sometime this evening.
At around 11 pm they announced that the lava flows were visible. Lucky, I could see them from my balcony, but I could not zoom into them for a good photo. This is as good as it gets!
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