First Day in Hawaii: The Big Island

Hilo, HI, Wednesday, March 15, 2017. This was our first port of call in Hawaii. We were up early and sighted land just as the day broke. In fact, we first saw Hawaii from the lights of the towns along the shore. It was an amazing sunrise to the East, as the sun came up and immediately passed behind a cloud.

Telescopes on Mauna Kea

We could see the first rays on the tallest volcano, Mauna Kea. Atop this dormant volcano is located the Keck Telescopes, which take advantage of the (mostly) cloudless 14,000-foot altitude to gain almost as good view of the stars as can be achieved by the Hubble. Some snow can still be seen at the top

Our only tour of the big island (both the island and the state are called Hawaii, so people call the largest island “the big island” to distinguish) was a hike across Kilauea Iki crater. This was about a half-hour drive from the ship in the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Kilauea is one of the two active volcanoes on the big island – the other being the much taller Mauna Loa. Kilauea has only craters or “caldera”, and not mountainsides. It’s just a depression in the landscape. The largest caldera has an even deeper depression which has the open lava pool. Because the lava continues to erupt in the crater, Kilauea is classified as the most active volcano in the world.

The smaller or “Iki” caldera is all solidified (it last erupted in 1959), and visitors can hike across it. It’s a 500 foot climb down to the floor, about 1.5 miles across, and another 500 feet of switchbacks to climb out. You can see our path behind the picture with my eyes shaded by the ballcap. The path led along the rim and past the promontory. The picture of Ken & Robbie was taken from that promontory. That’s the 1959 lava flow behind us in the picture. We then moved down the slope at the back of the picture and crossed the caldera floor through the “gap” that you can see. The smoke on the left side comes from the lava pond in the main caldera. The broad peak in the background is Mauna Loa.

Robbie was a trooper on the climb out. The group was mostly younger than us, and decided to do the climb without stopping. I remember when I did this climb back in 2013 I had to stop several times to catch my breath. But, despite my suggestion that we could stop, she just motored on to the top. That’s probably why we don’t have any pictures of us on the way up.

While we crossed the caldera, there were lots of evidence that this is an active volcano. For one thing, the ground was somewhat warmer than one might expect. And there were places where stream would vent from the cracks in the asphalt-like surface.

We also saw some interesting plants that are only native to Hawaii. This flowering bush is, unfortunately, being killed off by a fungus. It is similar to the “sudden oak death” fungus that killed the oak tree in our front yard. There is no known cure, and in future years these attractive flowers may be gone entirely.

After the visit to the Kilauea Iki we crossed the road and walked down to a large “lava tube”.

Lava Tube

These are long caves through which lava would flow on its way to the sea. This one had a floor built in and lighting so that you could walk through it. It was just like walking through a man-made tunnel. We only went through part of it, but there are lava tubes today that extend for over a mile into the ocean. In fact there are pictures (on the internet) of a lava fountain that is flowing into the ocean right now.

Kilauea Crater

After our visit to Hawaiian Volcanoes National Park we went to the Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Farm. This is an obligatory tourist stop. It was a long drive through the macadamia trees – perhaps a mile long. Macadamia nuts are harvested off the ground when they fall. They are shelled and roasted at the factory here, and prepared with flavors or coating. We also enjoyed some macadamia nut ice cream, just to keep up our energy.

Macadamia Nut Factory

Our last stop on the island of Hawaii was Rainbow Falls. When the sun shines there is (sometimes) a rainbow. Alas, for us, it was cloudy during our visit so we just have a beautiful waterfall.

Rainbow Falls

It was a warm evening as we sailed out of Hilo into the sunset. We sailed for several hours along the north coast of the island, and watched as the towns turned on their lights, and the towns and settlements got smaller and smaller. At the northern tip, there are no roads and, thus, the shore is dark. We sailed through calm seas to Oahu.

Departing Hilo