When we were in Baja, we heard from someone that Kilauea was erupting again, and it got me thinking...Then I was switching jobs and due to when I had to stop at AZGF due to pay periods, it gave us an extra week free, so we figured, let's just check flights to Hawaii. Across the board it was $500-600 roundtrip, except for 1 week, it was $200 roundtrip, which as crazy as it was, was the week that we'd be free between jobs, so we took it as a sign and bought the tickets!
Flew PHX to HNL then to Kona. We picked up our rental car, which was a turo rental (it's like air bnb for cars). We then drove to Hilo and straight to a bar to watch the UA sweet 16 basketball game. After that we drove to the main street and ate some takeout Hawaiian curry before driving to our Airbnb. The air bnb was in the middle of nowhere in the jungle. It was a decent drive on an rough dirt road to get there. It was a tiny, cute little place with everything we needed (shower, microwave, tiny refrigerator). It was off grid, using solar power, so the power (for most things) was off from 11pm to 7am. It was 2 stories with the bed and toilet being upstairs and a table and shower downstairs. The stairs were super steep, basically a ladder. At night the frogs sang us to sleep in a great chorus.
3/25/22
We drove to Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park in the morning. We did a few short walks for views of the crater and to see the steam vents. We then drove the Chain of Craters Road to the coast, going through all the recent lava flows and checking out aold craters, until reaching the ocean. We hiked through the lava flows to a view of a sea arch. On the way back up the Chain of Craters Road, we did a cool book guided hike of a recent eruption and up to the top of an old crater.
For dinner we had take-out pizza in the town of Volcano.
We then walked about 1.5 miles in the dark to a viewpoint into the crater to see the active lava lake and some eruptions in the crater. So awesome! The frothing lava and orange glow of the gasses, plus the crazy sounds of the erupting earth. Very powerful! I just love watching the lava as it oozes and churns around.
3/26/22
Drove to Pahoa and Kalapana and saw where very recent flows had bured a town. People are rebuilding right on top of the fresh lava. We visited a guy (Gary Sleik: hotfootphotography@yahoo.com) who has a gallery of lava photography. He would go out everyday during the several years long eruption to take photos. Eventually his house burned down, and now he has rebuilt an off-grid house on his property that is now covered with new lava. He had really cool stories and photos, very fascinating.
We then drove along a scenic coastal road, stopping at some ocean viewpoints. We visited a new black sand beach that is forming, and right in that same area are 2 hot spring pools on the beach. We also stopped by a place that used to have a black sand beach and a little park, but they were covered up by lava. In this part of the island, roads often just end, completely engulfed by a lava flow.
It's really crazy how roads and places are just covered up by lava. We continued along the scenic road, traveling on a road built over new lava. The narrow road also went through some forests where the dense trees bascially formed a tunnel over the road.
We visted a cool state park where trees that had been covered by lava as it flowed through formed these cool stalagmite type structures--they are appropriately called lava trees.
We then visited a couple of waterfalls near Hilo, including Rainbow Falls. After visting the falls, we hiked through a non-toursitic (no lights or path) lava tube. We enjoyed a yummy Thai dinner in Hilo.
3/27/22
We woke up early to watch the lava before sunrise and then watch the sunrise over the crater of Mauna Loa. After our sunrise lava hike, we drove back towards Hilo and did a scenic drive where we took a short hike down to a picturesque beach area in the jungle. We then continued driving the scenic coastal raod to the Waipi'o Valley overlook, which was very stunning. We had hoped to hike down to Waipi'o Valley, but it was sadly closed for dubious reasons (safety...but I think it had to do with keeping tourists out).
Since we couldn't hike down and do the further hike we had hoped to do there, we drove a pass over to the other side of the island, to Pololu Valley overlook. From there we hiked down to a beautiful black sand beach and then continued hiking up to another stunning viewpoint.
On the way back to Hilo, we stopped at Akaka Falls for the short walk to the beautiful and tall waterfall. We had dinner at a Hawaiian BBQ fast food place.
That evening I went out to see the eruption at night one more time. I went to several viewpoints. As I was there so late (midnight), we (A Canadian couple I was with) got permission to continue past the normal viewpoint and walk along the old rim road, which is now rather destroyed from earthquakes and fissures. It was an eerie walk along this road that at times had 6 foot wide crevasses that plunged deep down and had to be negotiated by taking paths around them. All the while the orange glow of the volcano was to our right and ahead of us. We made sure to tread slowly and carefully and to have our flashlights on high beam power. Eventually the road abruptly ends as the rest had fallen into the crater. From this point, we had a super close up view of the lava lake. Purely AMAZING!. Wow! I felt so lucky to have been able to get so close, and you could really feel the volcanoe's power (and even a little bit of heat rising up).
3/28/22
In the morning we drove back to the national park and walked through the lava tube that they allow visitors to explore. From the national park, we drove to the Punalu'u black sand beach where we saw lots of sea turtles, including one really close in a small pool where it was warming itself up.
Next we drove to the southern tip of the island (which is the southernmost point in the US) where there was some cool cliffs. From near there we hiked to the Green Sand Beach (Mahana Beach), which is a picteresque little beach that has a hint of green due to olivine crystals. We did some body surfing there, which was fun.
After the hike back we drove--through a fair amount of rain--to Kona where we stayed at the University of the Nations campus. We had a rather nice room with a much appreciated welcome basket. We went out to Ramen for dinner. We tried unsuccessfully to go get ice cream at McDonald's.
Interestingly, in Hawaii, we found that the lines for the drive throughs were insanely long (the indoor dining was closed) and that the McDonald's all closed very early, which meant that we didn't get as many $1 ice cream cones as we would have liked, haha.
3/29/22
After breakfast at the cafeteria on campus, we drove north of Kona and then hiked to Makalawena beach. It's a beautiful beach, and we were the only ones there! We did some snorkeling and then hiked back and rushed in order to make the lunch hours at the campus cafeteria. After lunch we drove to Kahalu'u beach where I snorkeled and Elisha met a random Hawaiian guy who gave her some ukulele lessons. We had dinner at the campus cafeteria.
In the evening, we went to do the manta ray night snorkel, which was an AMAZING experience! They use lights on the boats to attract plankton, which also attract manta rays; therefore, the mantas come right up to you, often even doing a belly roll right in front of you. They sort of glow under the bright lights, and it very much reminded me of the manta ray scene from Moana where the manta ray appears to glow. So cool! And a couple interesting facts we learned: Manta rays can sense electrical pulses in the water, including our heart rates. They can live to be over 100 years old, and they are one of a few species in the world that can recognize themselves in a mirror, and in fact they can recognize themselves in a mirror at a younger age than humans can.
3/30/22
Flight from Kona to HNL to Phoenix
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