Although leaving Waikiki was a sad morning for Rich and I, our flight from Oahu to Hawaii soon perked us up. This was due to three main factors really…
- The quintessential hawaiian island plane transfer – a tiny ten person plane with one seat either side of the aisle and only a curtain separating us from our pilots. Much to Rich’s delight, he had a front row seat to watch the captain in action.
- The free sightseeing tour – one of our fellow passengers kindly asked the captain whether we would be able to pass by the waterfalls along the coast of Moloka’i and sure enough he flew a route that gave us a birds eye view.
- There was a dog on the plane – this pleased Rich greatly.
The views from our tiny plane were truly amazing, flying up over Waikiki we could see the coastline where we had spent hours in the surf and we had a clear view of the reef below the surface of the water too.
As the reef disappeared into the depths of the ocean, the water turned from shades of turquoise into a gorgeous deep royal blue colour that reached out as far as the eye could see. It was stunning.
The further we travelled the cloudier the skies became and we could see the clouds clustering over land as we passed by islands.
Our ‘cheap flight’ route wasn’t direct to Hawaii, we had a quick pit stop in Maui before boarding our next plane.
“Unfortunately our hopes were dashed, the next morning we headed out in the rain.”
Coming into land in Hilo on Hawaii, the lush green Hawaiian island views we had been spoilt with thus far turned to views of murky dark brown volcanic rock. This was a first glimpse of a volcanic lava field and it was on a gigantic scale.
As soon as we landed in Hilo the skies darkened and fortunately we managed to pick up our hire car before the heavens opened. We drove to our hostel in torrential rain and strong winds and bunkered down for the night hoping for a brighter outlook for our sightseeing adventure the next day.
Unfortunately our hopes were dashed, the next morning we headed out in the rain.
The weather forecast looked a little brighter in the afternoon so we spent the morning warming ourselves up in a lovely little tea room, looking around their gift shop, visiting their resident goat Ernest and walking around the lovely gardens.
Our destination for the afternoon was Kilauea Crater. Kilauea is an active volcano on Hawaii and as a result it is not possible to get too close to the vent. We got as close as we could though and drove to the Jaggar Museum to take a look around, learn about the chain of volcanic islands that make up Hawaii and see the Kilauea vent for ourselves.
“The photo’s we took really don’t do it justice, Rich and I will just have to rely on our memories for this epic experience.”
Despite being hundreds of metres away from it, we could clearly see where the vent was with the smoke billowing out of it and despite the wind we could hear it too!
From the car park at the visitor centre there was a boardwalk which took us around geothermal steam vents. The sulphurous smell and green crystalisation reminded us very much of Rotorua.
We were advised to see the Kilauea crater at night, where the burning glow of the lava within can be seen along with smoke above. The photo’s we took really don’t do it justice, Rich and I will just have to rely on our memories for this epic experience.
Lambs on the loose 