Puna Region

Monday morning I twisted Leonard's arm and we went for a long walk in town to check out Wailoa River Park with plans to pick a few items at the bakery and farmer's market on the way home.  Wailoa River Park was a lovely spot with a statue of King Kamehameha and a series of interesting 'roller coaster' bridges over the river.  By  the time we'd walked through the park, we were almost to Coconut Island, another place on my list to see, so we included that in our walk too.  Coconut Island is a small island connected to the mainland by a foot bridge.  It's a park, and popular with locals and visitors to the big nearby resorts as a swimming area, protected by the harbor breakwater. On the way home, we found a fish market where we picked up enough fresh fish of a couple of dinners.

King Kamehameha

Foot Bridges over the River

Japanese white eye

Panorama looking across Hilo Harbor from Coconut Island (Click here and zoom to full vertical screen)

After lunch, we drove to Puna, a region SE of town that had a number of places that looked interesting.  We made a quick stop at the Mouna Loa macadamia nut grove, a somewhat of a disappointment - a big shop selling their products at tourist prices and a tour that consisted of looking through less than clean windows to watch the nuts being processed.  Much like maple syrup, it takes a lot of unshelled nuts to yield a small finished product.

We drove through Pahoa Town, a small hippie/western town that was spared when the flow stopped just short of town.  A new road bypasses the town, leaving it feeling like its stuck back in the 1960's.  A few miles down the road, we took a walk at the Lava Tree State Park , a loop through an area where lava had formed molds around trees, leaving odd shaped hulks where the tree had burned inside the mold.  Seeing a light house on the map, we went to take a look.  While the light house, a metal Erector set affair, was a disappointment, the ride to the coast wasn't.  The road cut through the lava field with blocks and chunks of lava strewn about higher than our jeep.  A very eerie sensation, with only a few bit of foliage beginning to dot the expanse. 

Hollow Lava tube formed around a tree

The "lighthouse" - note the height of the lava flow behind that we drove through

Our drive took us to a number of beaches and parks along the coast,  With the lava not yet worn down to black sand, the term beach has a different meaning, consisting of slab of rocks.  Thanks to all the geothermal activity, several of the swimming areas have warm (90 F) water,  and one is tucked behind some protective rocks, making for a placid place to loll about in bathwater.  People were snorkeling, but we hadn't brought our snorkels or towels.  The other problem with swimming at a number of the beaches are the constant warnings NOT to leave anything of value either in the car or on the rocks thanks to a number of locals who make a habit of breaking car windows or snatching unprotected items left on shore.  This is attested to by the smattering of glass found on the ground in number of the more remote parking areas.

A naturally heated swimming area on the ocean

Highway 137 is closed where the 1990 lava flow over ran the road.  We continued down to the end of the road, finding a small community of hardy folks trying to make a living selling crafts and food and drink to the tourists.  We hiked out a rough trial to the ocean and could see the steam rising where the flow is emptying into the sea, a few miles away.  Walking on the uneven (and unforgiving) lava rocks is difficult at best, so we decided it was too far to hike.  Leaving, we found that the road we had started on, Highway 130, continued a couple of miles closer to the lava flow.

Telephoto of the lava flow down the mountain

We were stopped shy of the viewing area by folks parking cars and offering the options of walking (around 4.5M 1 way), renting bikes, or taking a private shuttle.  The shuttle guy (he owned property covered by the flow which he said gave him the right to operate a shuttle at least that far) took one look at our gray hair and assumed we'd never walk that far, so he was pushing his shuttle.  We'd already walked that far in the morning and since we did have sneakers with us, could have done it.  But since it was 5:30, it would be good dark by the time we'd get there.  The plus side to having arrived late the day would be actually seeing the flow glowing rather than just the steam as it hit the sea.  We bit the bullet and took the shuttle - expensive, but a lot easier than tackling loose gravel and head winds on single speed bikes.  The price included 2 bottle of water and flash lights.The shuttle took us about half way (that hadn't been clearly spelled out), leaving us to hike the rest of the way.

Walking on the road (open to residents and emergency vehicles) was easy, and we joined the hordes of folks walking and biking in both direction.  The last bit, along a rope strung by park rangers for safety reasons was a challenge in the dark over the very uneven (and sharp) terrain.  Shelves of lava can and do break off with little warning - several people were killed when a large shelf broke not long ago, so we were content to stay behind the rope.

Lava flowing into the ocean at night

We were rewarded with some great views of the lava pouring into the waves below. We had the option to walk inland - the ranger patrolling the road indicated it was about 2 miles 1 way - to see the actual ground flow, but it was after 9, we were tired, we'd not had dinner and we still had about 2 miles to the shuttle pickup spot. Another plus of our night time walk was the beautiful clear, dark, star filled sky.  We got home after 10:30, tired and hungry, and glad we'd sprung for the shuttle.