This is a batch of pictures. We went to the island of Hawaii, aka "the Big Island". It is the youngest of the islands, less than one million years old. The land seems to be all lava rock, and it's still erupting and steaming.
The first thing I needed to do was rent a bicycle. "All" they had for mountain bikes my size was a 29er - I've been wanting to ride one! I didn't realize you could get one with a small frame. On my way to the bike shop - and daily while we were there - I saw cute little yellow birds.
I got my bike and rode home. This is outside the condo where we stayed,
And from our deck : high surf and sunset (the film)
We stayed in Kona, just south of the center. Some scenes from a little farther south:
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| Ron and a really big tree |
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| The coast is pretty much all lava rock |
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| A burial ground from ~1820's |
We had a tour of a coffee plantation
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| Coffee trees |
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| drying coffee cherries |
They had lots of other trees too.
Banana, mango, citrus, avocado, more
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| banana trees |
We went to Volcanoes National Park (http://www.nps.gov/havo/index.htm)
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| Kilauea Kaldera, home of Pele (the goddess, not the soccer player) |
We hiked across the Kilauea Iki lava lake. The volcano erupted in 1959 - everything is solidified but still hot. The steam you see is steam - the rock is porous and when the trapped water hits hot spots, we get steam. It was a strenuous hike.
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| The lava lake from the starting point. Our guide |
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| And us |
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| Ohelo Plant with berries |
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| It looked flat from the top! |
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| In the Kilauea Iki Vent. Sauna? Dry cleaners? Dishwasher? |
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| We finally caught up with Ron |
Lava tubes are tunnels formed by lava at the top solidifying, but also insulating the lava below, which continued to pour out into the sea. When the lava flow stopped, the tunnel emptied, and now we can walk through it. It's great! Worth the trip all by itself.
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| Ron in the lava tube |
That was an all-day trip. Wednesday we went to Mauna Kea, on which there are 13 observatories. It's 13,800 feet high - above the clouds, above pollution, and pretty much above air - a little hard to breathe up there. We went with an escorted group, got a tour (not inside the observatories), saw sunset and looked at stars through the tour companies telescopes.
On Friday we went to an animal sanctuary: The Three Ring Ranch exotic animal santuary (
threeringranch.org). There we saw:
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| bison |
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| these are all over |
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| ostrich |
And on our last day we went swimming with the dolphins and snorkeling at an amazing coral reef. Too bad I don't have an underwater camera.
Then we returned to Boston and snowstorm after snowstorm.
