Big Island

If there was one reason why we never partied in Honolulu, it’s because we woke up at 3 am to catch a flight to the Big Island, home to Mauna Loa, Mauna Kea, Kilauea and two other volcanoes. In fact, the whole island is the amalgamation of these volcanoes. We were all super groggy when we landed, but the open-air airport looked more like a ferry terminal, and that cheered me up. We rented a car for the day and drove north in search of breakfast. I really wanted to try the famous kona coffee but I settled for some other Hawaiian coffee. We ate at this high class place in some sort of gated community, at a mall which includes a Louis Vuitton shop. It was like driving from a lava field into Beverly Hills. There was a small lake and we fantasized about retiring there. Anyway, the egg benedict was delish.

Our route took us past Akana Falls. When we first walked into the forest and saw this teeny waterfall, I was disappointed and we all thought, “Damn, Taughannock Falls in Ithaca NY beats the crap out of this.” But then we walked in further and saw the real deal.

Halfway to the National Park, there was a turn off the highway into a small and windy scenic route, which took us near the coastline and across several one lane bridges. Quaint.

Also, road trips are always fun when there are songs to sing along to.

We stopped at this store because we thought it sold Kona coffee. But we bought water instead.

There was also a scenic point where you could see the ocean crashing into the rocks.

And then we reached Volcano village and had lunch, before heading to the caldera. It was an uphill drive all the way, but you’d never notice it because the slopes were so gentle. It did get a bit cloudy midway through.

First stop on Crater Rim Drive was the steam vents at the edge of the caldera. You would think that after going to Guatemala and seeing Lake Atitlan and climbing Pacaya, I would not be impressed with this place, but I was.

The floor of the caldera looked like the surface of the moon. It felt like standing on the edge of an alien world.

There’s an additional crater in the middle that constantly spouted smoke and sulphur. It’s interesting: learning geography in secondary school and finding out how shield volcanoes are formed never really prepares you for the scale of the damn thing when you see it for yourself.

Obligatory group shot. We wore green because it was St Pat’s Day.

After that, we drove down to south side of the volcano; the roads were cut right out of the lava flow. The road ended at the shoreline, where the lava flows into the ocean. The rain clouds were rolling in and it all felt very ominous.

The road was closed after a certain point and we had to walk a pretty far distance to the more recent lava, in the hopes of catching some glowing lava.

Here’s where lava from a few weeks ago swept across the road and forced the closure. Pretty awesome yeah. I found it hilarious that they had a picnic table there.

Filed under: Hawaii, Me, National Parks, Travel