Big Island

Two short flights back via Honolulu then on to the Big Island which is the newest island and the one with active volcanoes,tall enough to have snow, showing through the clouds on our journey.

 We arrived on the wet side of the island although fortunately not raining at the time 

and travelled to the National Volcano Park for our first view of a crater with an active section as you can see.

Most of the current action comes out of the sides of the mountains these days and as they are shield volcanoes they don't have great ash cloud eruptions like for instance Mts Etna, Fuji and of course Krakatoa. These start some 18,000 ft below sea level and so Mona Kea at 14000 feet above sea level is one very big mountain. Mona Loa is the biggest land mass of any of the mountains and still growing and currently the second highest and there are 5 volcanoes on the island.

After viewing the crater we walked through a lava tube made when the top of the lava cools and solidifies quicker than the underneath which keeps moving for a while eventually leaving a tunnel once the eruption has finished. Most are not this big that we have seen.

It also solidifies around trees which then get destroyed by the heat leaving smaller upright tubes.

We then travelled around the south of the island which is the furthest south you can go in the USA apparently. Past a black sand beach plus turtles

The hotel is in Kona country so the coffee should be good.

Up to catch a 7.30 check-in for a helicopter ride over the volcanoes and the north east of the island. Just stunning!

The crater we saw from the ground

Then an even more active one

the lava flowing into the sea creating an even bigger island!

we even saw moving new lava but harder to photograph succesfully.

Flew over Hilo with some rain before flying round amazing valleys cut by water and very green because of the rainfall.

Before heading back to the sunny side of the island, intotal about 1.5 hours of flying, amazing.

Pilots get younger and younger!

Early evening we caught a boat to go down the coast showing some of the layers of lava now being eroded on this side of the island

to view the place where Captain cook was killed, 

they thought he was the manifestation of a god who visited and then went away for years, unfortunately he had to return due to problems with his ship and so they realised he wasn't a god but did have metal which was not available before in the islands and so he was killed. 

Dinner on board and sunset not bad way to end the day.

Quiet morning no alarm! Visited the local church

which was the oldest on the island set up by missionaries in 1820 who travelled on this boat,

well a full size version!

Quick lunch then donned long trousers and picked up various layers and joined a trip to the top of Mona Kea. We stopped for dinner at 7000 ft, at this 'farm' ,

fortunately slightly better accommodation round the back but only tented so needed those jumpers,already much cooler and surprisingly hungry for 4.30pm! We then continued right the way up to 13800 ft, stopping briefly to see a 'silver sword' plant and a cinder cone showing the iron content in the lava.

We were warned about the effects of altitude apart from yawning, not the place to run or even walk fast until you've got used to the lack of oxygen. 

However the views of the various telescopes and hills where people had been skiing

this is the summit about 14 feet higher than we were!

and then the sunset made it even more worth while.

Fortunately they provided really warm parkers and gloves which meant only your legs got cold!

We then travelled down to 9000ft to watch the stars and were welcomed with a view of the international space centre and another satellite flying past.

No pictures I'm afraid camera not fancy enough to have the long exposure needed. The sky is just covered in stars I've never seen so many even in quiet areas of New Zealand which I thought was pretty amazing, it was hard to distinguish the constellations we all recognise because of all the other stars in view. The position less than 20 degrees north of the equator means that they get not only the northern hemisphere but a great deal of the southern hemisphere too. We had a good view of Jupiter with some of it's moons and a new galaxy forming in the sword of Orion.

Home late and early start for flight to last island of Maui but oh so worth it, an amazing island.

Kauai

Up at 5.30am not a time I'm at all familiar with! Flight to Kauai (Kawaii is more or less the pronunciation) completely on time and apart from the inevitable security more like getting on a train, flight time 25 minutes.

 It is the oldest of these volcanic islands and therefore has had more erosion by rivers and the breakdown of the lava into soil so is lush and fertile.

 It is the island where Captain James Cook first landed in this bay

and along with most of the larger islands used to have a huge sugar cane industry most of which have declined due to other world producers having lower production costs. It has also suffered a number of bad hurricanes and a particularly severe one in 1992 which left much of the island without electricity for 3 months put the final nail in the coffin. Coffee and macademia nuts replacing the cane in some areas. We travelled on the Waimea canyon (wai = water, mea =red) and as you can sea pretty impressive.

Carried on to the hotel enjoying the natural beauty of the island. Including this blow hole by the coast

and this waterfall

The island has many wild chickens who can apparently run pretty fast if required!

 

Lovely hotel on the beach, changed and out to a luau set in lovely gardens with a peacock doing his thing, perhaps he fancied the little train we were on!

As in all south pacific islands the meat is cooked in a pit with hot coals for a long time and is very tender, a ceremony to open the pit

and after a buffet including not only the pork and various salads but also fish and chicken. We were encouraged to try poi which is made from the taro roots and is high in protein but doesn't really taste of anything by itself but goes ok with the meat or spicy salsa type dishes. Not at all popular amongst my fellow travellers but cheap way of including protein in the diet. This was followed by a show of 'local' dances from around the south pacific

 including hula and fire dancing. Pretty tired by the end of the day!

We had pre-booked a movie tour of the island as its different climate zones and vegetation means that many movies have been made here including South Pacific, Elvis Presley's Blue Hawaii, Jurassic Park and more recently The Descendants with George Clooney. It has taken the place of various places in the world including Australia, Vietnam and Costa Rica.

 This is part of the Coconut grove hotel severely damaged in the hurricane but a number of films made there including the one with Elvis Presley and many stars stayed there in between including Frank Sinatra when he was making a film here. Lots of faded grandeur and would cost millions to put it right I suspect.

 We finished with lunch in the bar which featured in the Descendants so I may have sat on George Clooney's chair!

Quite windy on the beach in the afternoon but pleasant to have nothing to do for a bit before packing for the Big Island (Hawaii!) tomorrow.

Oahu, Hawaii

Oahu, Hawaii

What a long flight, over the frozen north

to this place

which is what the Golden Gate of San Fransisco looks like from the air.

Changed to a smaller plane for further 6 hour flight to Honolulu on Oahu. Greeted with beautiful lei, lovely smell too.

 Time difference is 10 hours behind so dealing with jet lag and long flight makes me realise not quite as young as I'd like to think. Fortunately first day completely free to look at the weather one way

and the other, from our hotel room!

Had a gentle stroll to get some bearings past a banyan tree, these are the roots!

 Then chilled before watching a pretty good sunset on the beach.

,

On to Pearl Harbour this morning, Oahu is the rainbow isle,

There are  two good and interesting museums and then we visited the SS Arizona which is grave to some 1177 initial victims when a bomb hit the ammunition store causing a huge explosion and now the ashes of another 37 who survived the attack have been added.

 We were ferried out and then spend 15 mins on the memorial building built over the sunken ship, not quite as peaceful as should be as many tourists just chattering.

The total crew was some 1500 mostly young men and although one commander had suggested an air attack was possible there wasn't enough money 'at the time' to run flights to check for aircraft carriers!

The Japanese had 7 or 8 huge carriers 

and were able to launch well over 300 planes which devastated the harbour with all the battleships neatly in a row to make aiming so much easier and also air strips, planes in a row too! The Japanese general who planned it recognised potential pitfalls and was actually against the war.

Quote by the Japanes general.
 

The incoming planes were mis-recognised by the early radar operator who was new to his job so there were a number of missed opportunities to have avoided the destruction but there were only about 2500 casualties so it was the damage to ships and planes that was important. Unfortunately we didn't have time to visit the SS Missouri where the surrender documents that ended the Pacific war were signed.

Back via the national cemetery where no headstones are allowed

but the dead are looked after by 'Mother'.

Beautiful surrounding flowers

 
Last day on this island we joined an excursion to the north shore starting at a temple,

very picturesque

ring the bell to get in

which also has mainly a flat stone cemetery

but the Japanese are rather more exotic!

No predators for the fish

This hole was punched through the rock during a sunami!

Then on via Sunset beach you might just see a surfer in the distance

and Turtle beach, guess what you see there!

Back via The Dole Plantation one of the world's largest pineapple farms, their ice cream pretty good but colourful garden too. Outside is a deep valley in the hills which is a direct line from the east coast to Pearl Harbour, some bomb aimer!

Early start tomorrow for our next island Kauai.