Hawaii, The Island of Volcanos

Today is helicopter adventure day!  It’s about an hour drive from our lodging to Hilo so we were up and off early to head to the airport.  We were taking a smaller helicopter and the doors were coming off!  Tom and I sat in the back while the pilot and another couple sat in the front.  I have only been in a helicopter one other time so I was pumped!  It was a bit nerve racking to have the wind blowing through the helicopter but awesome to see below so clearly without any reflections from glass.  We started out over Hilo and saw the macadamia nut farm and headed over to the lava flow.  Current flight restrictions didn’t allow us to go near Pahoa where the current flow is, but we still had plenty to see.  We saw some trees on fire, a small break through and the red glow of lava, and the steam from the Pu’u O’o caldrera where the current flow is stemming from.  After viewing the lava we some waterfalls.  We were still quite high and a good distance away, so I wasn’t overly impressed with the waterfall views. The flight lasted about 45 minutes and was a bit of an adrenaline rush.  We were happy that we did it.

Since we were close to the airport we headed back to Ken’s House of Pancakes for breakfast.  We again enjoyed pancakes and eggs and decided to head back to Hawaii Volcano’s National Park and do some hiking.  We stopped at the Visitor’s Center and watched a half hour movie of the 1959 eruption of Kilauea and picked up a park map.  We stopped back at our room where Tom took a quick nap and I went to the store to buy some water.  We then hit the trails!

The first trail we hiked was the Thurston Lava Tube.  This was a short hike through a lava tube.  We then crossed the road and started the much longer 4 mile hike on the Kilaeua Iki Trail which would take us through the rain forest into the crater and across the hardened lava lake.  This was a great hike!!!  Loved walking through the crater which was huge!  The hike took a couple of hours and when we got back to the car we decided to take the Chain of Craters Road drive down to the Holei Sea Arch.  We made several stops along the way to take in the views.  On the way back we went to the Jaggar Museum and once again viewed the red steam at the caldrera.  Back on the camp we ate again at the bowling alley and headed back to our room and sorted through the 500 pictures we have taken since we’ve been here, and dwindled them down to a more manageable amount of 200 or so.

We have one more full day and then we head back to Oahu.  We’re looking forward to another day of hiking on Thursday.