10am Flight, waterfalls and then back to Oahu

We had this little house in Hilo.  If you've ever been to the Hilo side of Hawaii, you'll know it rains ... it rains... it rains and it RAINS!  We learned they get about 17-20 feet of rain a year.  Rarely a day without rain, but we managed 2 days.  But it was still quite chilly.  The house we stayed in had a little wood burning stove as a heater.  We tried to light a fire ... but the wood and even the newspaper was so humid, it didn't go very well.  Even the matches wouldn't burn very long.  Steve tried for awhile and then gave up.  I gave it a shot, for about 20 minutes, plus lots of paper (that I had with me) and we finally got it burning.  Kind of crazy how humid it was.

All day long we told the girls we had a 10 am flight the next day.  So in the morning, we loaded the car, said goodbye to the little house with a big wood burning stove as a heater and drove back to the airport.  They knew we were going back to Oahu so they assumed that it was our flight to Oahu...  but we left out some details.  We arrived at the airport, a little later than we had wanted, and told the girls to just jump out and run with me to check in.  They all stressed about the luggage and how was dad going to get it all.  But we finally convinced them to just get out of the car without everything.  We ran to the counter and as I was checking in the girls read the name on the counter - Blue Hawaii Helicopter!  WHAT?  A helicopter flight?  Yep.  That was surprise #1 of the trip.

Just a few pics from the helicopter ... it took our breath away.  The pilot said we had chosen one of the best days in weeks to go up.

 The lava flows are hot so hot that they dry out the rain forest that borders the active lava flows.  The lave occasionally will break through the surface and a tree goes up in flames. 

The smoke was visible on the edges of the rain forest and lava flows.  Amazing to see the stark difference.  Our pilot told us about the last community that was finally destroyed.  There was a home that was completely surrounded for quite awhile before it was taken by the lava.  The man lived in it until the day it was engulfed.  He capitalized on it - turned it into a bed and breakfast and they had to helicopter in the guests. 

 After we circled over the volcano, our pilot flew us over some amazing waterfalls on private lands (ones you can't hike to without special permission). 

The helicopter ride was another "check" on my bucket list. 

Back on the ground, we went for a hike to a water fall.  Just a few of the things we saw that intrigued us ... what looks like a tiny bamboo.

Rain forest ...  so green. 

 Beautiful flowers.

 Heart shaped leaves.

 This tree was beautiful - draped with roots and vines like I've never seen before.

 First glimpse of the waterfall.

 And wow - it is really amazing and big!

 After the waterfall, we went past the shore and saw this tree that the girls said was perfect for climbing. 

 A few more minutes before we had to be at the airport for our flight to Oahu, so we found this waterfall too.  We thought it was amazing.

Volcano.  Lava flows.  Helicopter ride.  Waterfalls.  An amazing trip so far and only 2 days into it!   ... And yes, I know I used the word amazing more times than I ever should in one post, but it was exactly that.  

Time on the Big Island

We started our Hawaii trip on the big island of Hawaii.  We stayed in a small home near the town of Volcano.  We spent the first day seeing the volcano from a car and by foot. 

 

Steam vents were the first thing we saw.

 

Then we hiked through a lava tube.  We learned that a lava tube isn't a tunnel that lava flows through, its a lava that hardens around a lava flow, then the rest of the lava drains out and leaves the empty tunnel. 

I was fascinated by the rain forest.  It was amazing.  We hiked several miles down into an old crater formed in the 1950s after 17 fountains erupted.  The girls were quite little troopers and even ran all the way back to the top.

This view you can see the rain forest and then the desolation of the crater in the background. 

And after we reached the bottom, we walked out of the lush green, to see this.

 

You can see the top, which is where we hiked from.

And then we hiked back up!

Our next stop was down off the top of the volcano at the shore where the lava flows dumped into the ocean. 

A short walk up the "closed" road, we came across this little patch of palm trees.  We learned that years ago, this coast line was covered with small communities and little patches of palm trees in each community.  Over time the volcano and lava flows have destroyed all those communities.  About 20 years ago, the native people replanted the trees.  The volcano again destroyed all of them, but this one little patch.  The native people feel they are a sign, like the people to be resilient and continue to rise above the struggles.   

Just a little further up the road, we hiked on the lava flows which covered the road as recently as August of last year.

The road was closed and then several times they had to close additional parts of the road as the lava flows covered more of the road ... including this road closed sign.  The post is original - although the sign has been stolen and replaced a few times.  :)  We thought it was really fun.

We thought it was interesting to see where the lava flows went and how sometimes parts of the road survived.  There were miles and miles of road covered by the lava which had come from miles up the mountain. 

 Cute little Jess wrapped up in a Hawaiian sarong sitting by a little sign of life among the lava flows.

 Then she tried to save me from the lava hardening around me ... :)  Gotta be a little silly once in awhile.

 

The sunset was stunning.

The girls took turns throwing rocks into the ocean - you can see Jessica's rock as a grey blur.  All the other photos I took were blurred kids. 

Taylor and Jessica strike a pose on top of a small little hill or lava rock.  It was really cool to see how life comes from the lava after time passes. 

After dark, we ventured back to the top of the volcano and had dinner in a restaurant that overlooked the volcano.  We could see the glow of lava in the distance. 

 

I was amazed to see the volcano.  I've never seen anything like it.  A beautiful and stunning day - and check off "see active volcano" from our bucket list.