Category: Hawaii 2019

Honomu – 28 January, 2019 – Waterfalls, a Lava Tube and the top of Mauna Kea

Mauna Kea is over 13,000 feet high. We drove to the top today. When we got there the temperature was 32 degrees and the wind was blowing hard. Since there wasn’t much air and it was so cold we didn’t stay there long. But oh what a view and what unearthly terrain. From the main highway it is just under 15 miles straight up to the top.

On our way back down to Kona we stopped at Wai’ale Falls and Rainbow Falls.

We also climbed down into a two mile long lava tube called Kaumana cave. Although you can take a flashlight into the tube and explore we decided not to. It was very dark!

Our last stop of the day was a visit to the Lyman Museum. We ate dinner at Hilo Bay Cafe overlooking the ocean.

Honomu – 27 January

I love breakfast in Hawaii. We have had the most wonderful papaya every morning.

Today we drove north up the Hamakua Coast. We took several detours paralleling the highway on the old road and stopped at sites along the way. We took a short hike to Akaka falls.

There is beautiful lush vegetation along the narrow old road.

We also stopped at Laupahoehoe Point and memorial. A terrible tsunami hit the Hawaii coast in 1946. On this small peninsula 21 schoolchildren and three adults were killed by the tsunami.

For dinner we had pizza in Hilo at Pesto Cafe.

Volcano to Honomu – 26 January, 2019

Even though the government shutdown is over they still weren’t collecting money when we reentered Hawaii Volcano National Park this morning. We rewatched the video about the 2018 Kilauea eruption. I was able to understand what happened much better having seen all the locations. The lava traveled from the summit caldera near the visitor center underground twelve miles to Pu’u O’o Coldera where more lava joined the flow and then another twenty miles underground to fissures in and around Leilani Estates where the lava came to the surface and flowed to the ocean.

From Volcano we drove to Hilo where we walked through Lili’uokalani Gardens.

Then we visited the Pacific Tsunami Museum.

We are staying thirteen miles north of Hilo at Palms Cliff House Inn. Our room has a wonderful ocean view. For dinner we went back into Hilo and ate at Pineapples Restaurant. The setting is open air and very relaxing. We started with some really really wonderful Ahi poke.

Then Duke had coconut crusted fish and I had coconut crusted shrimp.

Volcano, Hawaii – 25 January, 2019

Today we drove to where last year’s Kilauea eruption occurred. The first signs of the eruption were at the summit and at the caldera near where we are staying but the lava actually erupted from fissures on the side of the volcano many miles from here. The lava went into the ocean in several places. They have just recently opened the shore road through the flow. We stopped at a beach park that was almost completely overrun. After that the road was still closed.

Next we drove into Leilani Estates where many homes were overrun. The lave flow is st least twenty feet thick and goes right across the roads completely burning many homes and leaving nearby homes apparently untouched.

Volcano, Hawaii – 24 January, 2019

We spent today in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park around the massive Kilauea Caldera. Many of the roads and hiking trails were closed because of the government shutdown but the visitor center was open and was manned by volunteers who were handing out a map of where we could go that wasn’t closed.

We even got to see a pair of Ne Nes, the endangered Hawaiian state bird.

Some of the roads were closed because of the big eruption last year.

We ate dinner st Volcano House in the park overlooking the caldera.