Happy anniversary to us!

 

Today is our 38th wedding anniversary (time flies when you are having fun…), and it started well- if early - with a beautiful sunrise.  

We decided to splurge on a helicopter tour of the island.  It was well worth it!  

We started by flying over the lava fields from the 2022 eruption, which destroyed a few roads that have yet to be repaired because the ground remains hot for so long.  

Along the way, you also see many army training sites- tough environment for training, but I guess that’s the point.  

This morning, the weather was clear, so we got nice views of Mona Kea - the tallest one, which has observatories on top because it has such a clear view of the sky, and Mona Loa, which is much bigger but not as tall and still considered active.

We got very near Kilauea and flew right above the plume, which is very strong right now, so you can’t really see the caldera itself.  

We also saw many small extinct volcanoes,  and the signs of more recent lava flows.   

We then went to the east coast of the island to see the famous cliffs and water falls - the falls are 2000 feet high at some points.  They do not start in lakes or river, but simply as the overflow from all the rain that side of the island receives.  

Which explains why that side is so lush and tropical. The valleys we flew through were like something out of a movie.  In fact, they have been used for many movies- including Jurassic Park, and you would not be that surprised to see a dinosaur or two just poke their head out of the foliage.   

We landed at the base of one of the falls (top picture) right by the rocky ocean. This is a spot that is not accessible any other way, making it really special.   

On the way back, we flew over the large cattle ranches that have been a big part of the Big Island economy for a long time (so was sugar, but that stopped in the 1990’s - they just could not compete). But cattle is still big (the little black dots on the picture are cows).

In the afternoon, I first went to the petroglyph park that happens to be right next to the hotel and one of the biggest and most important petroglyph sites in Hawaii.  It’s a tough and hot trail across the lava fields, that goes to a large area (maybe the size of a football field) completely covered with petroglyphs.

 Most are basic human figures.  

Some are more complex, with eyes and fingers or hair,

some are entire families and some are animals.

 

No one has any idea what they represent, who carved them and why.  They date from around the 1500’s, but why people (who did not have thick soled shoes) walked across the sharp lava field, in an area without any water to do this is unknown.  It was a hot walk even for me, but super cool!!!  

Walking back from the petroglyphs, I shot this picture of our hotel, showing how it really stands on a lava field….

Then went to the little beach in front of the hotel, expecting just a nice swim, but then I saw that people were snorkeling around the breakers and decided to try it too.  What a treat!  Not only is there a huge variety of tropical fish, but I almost ran into a sea turtle!!! Of course, I had forgotten to take my underwater camera….  I will try again tomorrow, which will probably cause the turtles to stay away…..  But there still should be lots of cool fish!

We went for a sunset cruise, not expecting much because it was cloudy.  But we still got a very pretty view of Maui (the next island in the archipelago), and then….  The clouds opened and we were treated to the most magnificent sunset ever! (No, really- I have seen many beautiful sunsets….  This was truly remarkable- none of these pictures are filtered).

 

Here are  pictures of the birds of today: saffron finch, common waxbill and pacific golden plower

The mammal of the day is the goat ( which were a gift from captain Cook and have become quite a nuisance.  I also saw a mongoose, which are also a problem (they were introduced to kill rats but instead kill native birds), but could not take its picture.  

And here are a few more pictures from the helicopter ride.

 

The Big Island!

        

Another early start to catch a plane to the Big Island of Hawaii.  It’s name is actually Hawaii, but that’s just confusing, so it’s generally referred to as only the Big Island - which it is:  Indeed, it is more than 1.5 times bigger than all of the other islands put together.  It is also - by far- the most recent one - at about 500,000 years old, while Kauai is at least 2 millions years old.  That’s because it is the closest one to the hot spot that has created them all, and is still growing because of it.  It contains The Volcanoes National park, which (amongst many volcanoes) contains the tallest volcano on earth (Mona Kea - which, if you measure it from the bottom of the ocean where it starts, is taller than Everest), as well as several active volcanoes - one of which we visited - Kilauea.

But first, we had to get here.  It’s a short flight, about 50 minutes, which provided very nice views of our hotel on Waikiki and of the entire caldera of Diamond Head, as well as of some of the sights we had seen the day before.

We then drove to the national park and walked with a very knowledgeable guide along the rim of the Kilauea caldera:  It has been quite active recently, sending lava 1000 feet in the air just a couple of weeks ago, but today, only smoke (a lot of it!) was coming out - It is very grand and awe inspiring, but very hard to capture in pictures - in part because of its shear scale, in part because the shades of the different layers of lava blend together.  So just take my word for it - it is very cool.

 Along the trail, there are many lush areas, whith all kind of beautiful ferns and flowers taking advantage of all the heat and moisture provided by steam holes everywhere - right by the holes, nothing grows because it’s too hot, but nearby is very green and lush.  

(More pictures of flowers at the end of the blog).

This is what the trail looks like in places - just a long row of steam holes lining it……. And here is me getting a free facial from all that steam.  

We then drove to the West side of the island - in between the 2 big volcanoes, on what is called, for obvious reasons, the saddle road.  It was very overcast and gloomy, and we could not see the volcanoes (we will have other opportunities to do so), which apparently is not uncommon:  they are so tall that they create their own climate, and it is cloudy or rainy more often then not.  Indeed, on the east side of the island (where we landed - on Hilo), it is the rainiest spot in all of Hawaii.  Which explains why the big resorts are not there.  

The saddle road goes through the lava field, which looks even more grim with this grey weather.  We learned more about the different types of lave than I remember right now….  (Top picture is the smooth lava - I think because it flows faster… but don’t quote me on that one….)

As soon as we started descending toward the ocean on the other side of the volcanoes, the sun came out as expected.  We are still  on a lava field:  this entire resort town is built on a lava field!  I’ll have more details about it tomorrow.  For now, here are just a couple of pictures to show how very lovely it is.

Some more pictures of flowers:  The east side of the island is very lush because of all the rain and has many flowers, including many orchids.