Chasing the light

The sky changed from its early morning color to bright blue by the time I headed out, bright blue with a quickly spreading white cloud. But oh! that's not a cloud - it's fumes, coming from the vent with Halema`uma`u. White, billowing, spreading, beautiful.

I started my wandering by following that rising white. The Jaggar Museum was a good spot for an unobstructed view. I stayed there for a bit, snapping photos, absorbing the sight.

Time to walk... I headed to the the Kilauea Iki Trail, a loop that starts high on the crater's rim, that drops down to the crater floor. The trail description indicated that there was a 400 foot descent/ascent, equivalent to climbing down and up a 40-story building. The initial sections on the crater fall required eyes to watch where feet were to be placed. It was more than a bit uneven. Eventually the surface changed, becoming smooth, promoting easy walking. At that point the black rock started to wear white lines as decoration. Patterns of white crossed the black of hardened lava, patterns of white decorated the blue skies. From the higher elevation pieces of the trail I could see the rising plume of smoke from Halema`uma`u.







I originally planned to do a second hike this afternoon. Instead, I spent my time following interesting patterns in the sky. I walked part of Crater Rim Trail, I repeated part of the Sulphur Banks, I watched the colors of the clouds change from white to patterned white and gray.

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Dinner tonight was at Thai Thai (again). A tasty, somewhat spicy verion of Pad Thai made my stomach quite happy.

I was hoping to catch the glow from the crater this evening, but the rain that started late this afternoon is continuing to fall. I have a feeling that the rain against the roof may lull me to sleep tonight. And I do have two more nights to catch the volcano's glow. Fingers crossed...

Morning food

Morning, sky lightening...

I was up & ready to head out earlier than my B&B breakfast time. There is a farmer's market in Volcano every Sunday morning, and that seemed like a good way to start my day. Ah, that's what I need - bananas and tangerines! That should make a good supplement to my energy bar stash.

Next stop, breakfast.

Based on a conversation I had with Gary yesterday, I believe the breakfast menu is the same each day. Today's breakfast included some favorite foods, and it left me with more than enough energy to play. Breakfast started with a half of a papaya topped with bananas, pineapple, blueberries and yogurt. What a nice combination of tastes!

Next, fresh waffles, as many as I cared to eat. A bowl of strawberries was available as a topping, and both maple and coconut syrup were on the table.

There were hard-boiled eggs and cheese, English muffins, bagels. No one touched the English muffins and bagels; we all were happy with just the waffles!

And I can't forget the ever-present (local) Kona coffee! Yes, I know, I'm usually a tea drinker. And when I drink coffee it's usually decaf. Not in Hawaii though - my morning beverage of choice (here) is Kona coffee.

A good food start to the day...

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Hey! Rover here! I just have to jump in to share some photos from our home away from home!

We're on the top floor of a three-story building, one room (well, one unit really) per floor, surrounded by the oh so green vegetation of the rain forest.

Sulphur or sulfur?

Did you know there are two different spellings of that funny yellow stuff that was decorating the rocks along the Sulphur Banks trail?

Denise saw two different spellings on the National Park Service web site (at least she thinks she did...) and then she caught herself using both spellings. That's not like her, so I went off to see which spelling is correct.

The definitions I found were a bit confusing; one spelling appears to be British, the other US English. But it's a little weird.

sul⋅phur
1. Chiefly British. sulfur


sul⋅fur
1. Also, especially British, sulphur.
A nonmetallic element that exists in several forms, the ordinary one being a yellow rhombic crystalline solid, and that burns with a blue flame and a suffocating odor.

I think what that's saying is that the spelling sulphur is a British spelling, but I'm really not sure. Funny thing is, the spellings on the Hawaii Volanoes National Park site mostly use sulphur.

Hey, I wonder who gets to decide on spellings? No matter, I think the puzzle is solved - Denise can use whichever spelling she'd like!

--- Rover

From black sand to craters

Morning brought another good breakfast and good conversation.

And then... it was time to head south, to visit the Punalu'u Black Sand Beach. When I arrived it seemed as if every black rock was occupied with someone casting for fish. Ah, it's Saturday, and everyone is out, at play. I walked over some of the rocks, across the very black sand, hoping to see some sea turtles. The ever present turtles were missing from the beach today. Perhaps they were swimming, perhaps to escape the hordes of humans. The clock rolled past noon, and suddenly the ocean front spots were vacant. Ah, time for some camera play with uninterrupted vistas!

The sky was gray but still bright. It almost seemed to blend with the silver reflections in the water, contrasting with the very black beach and rocks. Fabulous.



I pulled myself away from the black sand, sea level, continuing north to enter Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. The road topped out at 4000 feet of elevation, a bit cooler than it was along the coast, cloudier, and oh! is that rain? I headed in to the Visitor Center to chat was a ranger, to pick up information on trails.

I discovered that Crater Rim Drive can no longer be driven in a circle. It is open from the park entrance to Jaggar Museum (heading west), and from the park entrance to Chain of Craters Road heading in a clockwise direction. From the Closed Areas and Advisories page of the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park web site:

A portion of Crater Rim Drive, between Jaggar Museum and the Chain of Craters Road junction, is closed indefinitely due to the new vent that opened within Halema`uma`u Crater in March 2008.

I learned a new word today - VOG, or volcanic smog. From the park's web site:

Visitor Alert - Kilauea is currently emitting elevated levels of sulphur dioxide gas and an ash-laden fume cloud from a new vent within Halema`uma`u crater.

Scientists at the Hawaiian Volcano Observatory continue to record elevated sulphur dioxide (SO2) gas levels at the summit of Kilauea volcano.

So far so good though. No noxious odors (other than the sulfur smell evident as I hiked through the Sulphur Banks this afternoon.

I visited the Jaggar Museum, then headed out to walk in somewhat damp conditions. The rain eased off to very light drizzle as I walked the Devastation Trail, through rain forest vegetation and on to stark black rolling hills, cinder fields left from the 1959 eruption.



From there I headed to the Sulphur Banks Trail, a thermal area with steaming cracks and bright yellow deposits of sulphur. That trail ended at Crater Rim Trail where steam rose along the very edge of the crater. A fascinating view...

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My home for the night was a bit of a surprise. I thought that I had booked a room at the Bamboo Orchid B&B, but as it turns out the room I had chosen was at its sister property, Volcano Tree House. The room I booked was the smallest on the property, at a very reasonable price. When I showed up, I was told that my room had been upgraded (at no additional charge!) to the Tree Top Suite. It's high in the trees, the top floor of the building. Somehow the name made me think I'd need to climb a ladder to get to my room. No ladder, just outside stairs to the third floor. It's more than comfortable, and I can hear the sounds of insects in the night. Sweet. (Breakfast? Yes, it's still included, at Bamboo Orchid, just a few blocks from my home for the next 4 nights.)

Dinner tonight was a yummy vegetable curry at Thai Thai. If I remember correctly I ate at Thai Thai every night of my stay in Volcano back in 2004. I could very easily do that again, although there is one other restaurant in Volcano that looks interesting; I think I'll try that one too.

After satisfying my need for food, I headed back to the Jaggar Overlook in the park to see if there was a visible red glow from Halema`uma`u Crater. Not tonight... as I got closer to the overlook it seemed that the clouds (or fog) dropped close to ground level. Maybe tomorrow.

If you're curious about the volcano's activity level, click to view Recent Kilauea Status Reports, Updates, and Information Releases.

Trees growing sideways

Denise said that we were going to take it easy today, but I think she forgot! She was pretty tired by the end of the day so I thought I'd jump in and write today.

We started our wanderings by visiting Pu'uhonua o Honaunau, a place of refuge. It's a National Historic park, although Denise seemed to spend more time trying to capture palm trees and reflections with her camera than she did with reading about the history of the site.

Then, we headed to South Point, the southernmost point in the United States. Do you know that the wind is so strong there that the trees grow sideways? (Well, not really - but there is a distinct sideways direction to the tops of the trees.) We stopped at South Point for a very short amount of time there, and then we headed to the jumping off point for the hike to the green sand beach.

Oh! Here's a shot of one of those one-lane two-way roads, and another of the view from South Point...





We bounced along dirt tracks of bright yellow, sharing space with other walkers and with occasional 4-wheel drive vehicles. The tracks were anything but smooth, and definitely not straight. It took us longer to get there than to get back because Denise kept wandering off to the side, heading closer to the ocean. There isn't a single track but a series of winding tracks so I'm not sure there is a straight path to get there anyway. It was a good wander.

The colors of the day were amazing. As we peered down a steep cliff to the water at South Point - the ocean was so blue! There was bright green groundcover, slashes of orange/yellow dirt, black rocks, and yes, a sand beach wearing the color green.

We saw the beach from on high; the beach is at the bottom of a cinder cone and the slope looked quite steep and very slide-y.

--- Rover

Breakfast conversations

A good first morning's breakfast...

I felt surprisingly awake this morning. I managed to get a couple of catnaps on the last flight yesterday, and somehow I still got a good night's sleep.

I was the only person at breakfast this morning. There were only 2 rooms in use last night, and the other folks headed out very early. Breakfast was wonderful - gingered pancakes topped with peaches, passion fruit, and whipped cream, wonderful. And although when I drink coffee it's ususally decaf, I opted for real Kona coffee this morning. I have a feeling this is going to be a morning coffee week.

Once he served breakfast, Greg grabbed a cup of coffeee and sat down to chat. Good breakfast, good conversation, a good first B&B night for this adventure...

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Oh! I need to jump in here with some photos. Denise was right last night with her guess that we would have a good view from bed. I thought you'd like to see, so here are two photos that she grabbed this morning.

--- Rover

What time is it?

Do you want to know what time it is for Denise and me as we wander the Big Island?

Hawaii is on Hawaii-Aleutian Standard Time (HST) which is 5 hours earlier than the east coast, and 10 hours earlier than Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

To see the current time in Hawaii, click here.

Just thought you might be curious...

--- Rover

Dark, narrow, winding

Late Thursday night

Headwinds continued to push back at the plane as we crossed the Pacific Ocean, pushing our landing in Kona back by about 20 minutes. On the ground, we waited for stairs to be rolled up to the plane - two sets, one forward, one aft. walked down the rear stairs, treated (!) to the smell of jet fuel before the air cleared to reflect the tropics.

There was a method to my dressing madness today. I wore two shirts, sleeveless under long-sleeved. I needed my layers (including a layer of light fleece) for the plane, but a sleeveless shirt was called for by the nicely warm temperatures here.

Driving, south... following the instructions send by the Aloha Guest House - my home for the next two nights - I turned onto Old Tobacco Road south of Captain Cook, just before milepost 104. It's a single lane mostly unpaved road, winding through fields, past a couple of houses, all dark. I somehow managed to turn left instead of right at the last intersection. Luckily, someone came out of the house and was able to point out my faulty direction-following. Phew! Home for the night.

I came into the house and found a room with my name on it. What a wonderful room - and I can't wait to see the view in the morning. Instead of picking a room, I opted for this B&Bs Internet special. The rooms here range from $140 to $280 a night. The special? The 123 special is $123 per night, and the hosts assign the room. I was assigned the Halawi (also called the Horizon) room. It has a canopy bed right in the window, with a view of the coast (ok, ok, I think it has a view of the coast, but it's too dark to tell right now!). Do you want to see it? Click here.

I managed to nap for a few hours on the plane, but I think it's well past bedtime. It's midnight here, 5 AM at home...

It's time to sleep.

A three airplane day

Early morning, time for the first step, flying. Plane 1 of 3 for the day...

The trip to the airport was remarkably fast. It was early in Boston's rush hour with a good number of cars on the road. No slowdowns meant the trip to Logan took only thirty minutes. That's pretty amazing.

Baggage checked, no lines at security, a smooth transition to the world of travel.

The gate waiting areas were busy, packed with people. I walked a bit, from one end of the gate area to the other. A morning cup of Starbucks, a place to sit. In a wide hallway between gate areas there was a row of wooden rocking chairs in front of floor to ceiling windows. Ah, a good place to relax before my flight.

First plane off the ground, heading over the Boston Harbor Islands. A lighthouse was visible, islands, ocean. Hmm... I thought I was heading west! Not to worry, it was just a short jaunt over water before we headed towards Dallas.

A strong headwind pushed against us, forcing the flight to be a bit longer than scheduled. Luckily our landing gate was changed; instead of needed to walk the full length of two semi-circles, my inbound flight was just a few gates away from my plane to LA.

A two and a half hour layover at LAX gave me a time to grab some food and to relax. The American Airlines terminal here at LAX is a bit iffy from the food standpoint for those of us who aren't meat eaters, but I did find some more than satisfactory food. A bakery cafe had some interesting sandwiches - roasted eggplant and peppers on very tasty ciabata made me happy. But oh! I think I have time to find a brownie or cookie before I head for the next airplane.

One more plane, a long (five and a half hour) flight over water.
Destination: Hawaii.

Dreaming of Pele's creations

It's hard to believe that I will be headed for Hawaii in the morning. One more sleep, then time to fly, time to visit Pele's creations.

I'm dreaming of tropical air, of black rocks, black beaches, ocean waves.

Tomorrow...