Travels and Musings: Friday, November 15- Tour of Kona

I'd scheduled a full day between arrival and getting on the ship- to recover form travel and just in case something went wrong- but before I left I booked an all-day tour around the island. As promised, was a very full day and a good choice. The guide, who first visited Hawaii for a friend’s wedding 3 years ago and was so enchanted he left his wife, sold everything and moved here from SC, was a geology aficionado so I was in heaven. He could answer all my questions about how particular formations happened. We circumnavigated the island, covering over 300 miles.

Our first stop was Joe’s Kona Coffee House, where the beans are grown, roasted and shipped all over the world. We had a light breakfast, sampled the coffees and I bought a lot to take home. Well, I’d passed up the Jimmy Choo spike-heel shoes and the Cartier watches in Honolulu. The coffee is something I’ll use.

View from Kona Joe's

We made a brief stop at a black sand beach.

From there we stopped at a bakery. I LOVE sugary baked goods but usually avoid them. I make an exception when I'm on vacation and the offerings are really high-quality. I had one of the ones on the top, filled with Bavarian cream. The Hawaiian word for that type of pastry is "malasada".

For me, the highlight of the trip was the Kailuaua crater, which had been the site of earlier eruptions but which was deepened by over 1500 feet and widened far more than that over several months last year. Enough lava flowed out of the crater and the fissures in the surrounding areas to cover Manhattan to a depth of 30 feet. Half of it ended up in the ocean but an entire neighborhood was destroyed and many areas were evacuated. Our guide had made many visits during the lava flows with an equally foolhardy friend, a geologist and had the videos (with sound) to prove it.

One of many steam vents at the edge. The air was so hot I was surprised how many plants survived around them.

This and the picture below show two views of the Kiluea crater left after last year's lava flow. A very good 7-minute video at this link explains last year's activity and shows videos of the eruptions and lava flows. At about 5 minutes, they show activity in this area at the summit. When it was all over, the crater floor, which had been 280 feet deep, was 1,600 feet deep, and the diameter of the crater had doubled.

You have been warned.

We had lunch at a restaurant and lodge at the edge of the crater. Below is a view from the restaurant. It was pretty miraculous that the restaurant was spared. Before we left I quietly sprinkled a small portion of Ron’s ashes at the rim, commemorating the 3rd anniversary of his death, which happened to be today.

Our next stop was Kiluea Iki, or "Little Kiluea". There was a beautiful hike leading to a waterfall. The vegetation, especially the banyan trees, was amazing.