Hawaii, Day 80 - The Big Island
Hawaii, Day 80
Justin and I hopped on an early (read: 5AM) flight over to the Big Island. From the plane I managed to catch sunrise, and then as soon as we landed I started snapping pictures. We went to a local place for breakfast and beat the locals there! First stop was Kilauea caldera. The steam vents were absolutely bewildering, as the entire ridgeline of the caldera steams in the morning cool. We hiked down onto the surface of the caldera to feel the lava flow up close, and it was one of the strangest surfaces I have ever walked on. It was both crunchy and smooth, almost like melted plastic. We left Kilauea and headed off up the coast to see what we could see, stopping at a few places on the way out and back, including Waipio Valley and Akaka falls, as well as others. It was getting late, so we grabbed some dinner and made for the lava flow. We got there early so that I could secure a nice spot for my camera and tripod, and then we watched and waited. As night came on, it got easier to see the eruptions, and made it more obvious how big the earlier ones must have been to be visible during the day. Seeing a volcano erupt is quite possibly the coolest thing I have ever seen, and it was a great way to end my Hawaiian vacation summer.
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