Hawaii – Volcano National Park

Something that has caused weeks of disruption in the UK and Europe was something that we were itching to see in Hawaii – although fully aware that the chances of actually seeing anything other than a steaming hole is rare! It just so happens though that Iceland isn’t the only place at the moment feeling the force of mother nature’s magma! Volcano Kilauea Caldera is one of the world’s most active. However, although active this generally doesn’t mean lava flying high into the sky, you are more likely just to see steam coming out of the crater as the lava heats up deep underground. But, on the 3rd May (a week ago) she actually erupted! Ok, only a mini eruption but an eruption nontheless, so currently lava is flowing from 2 of its craters…how exciting! As good a time as this is to visit, the eruption has also caused a lot of damage and some of the national park is shut due to a high level of sulphur in the air. So bubbling with excitement on our first day proper we leave the drunken locals to their beach park and head to the Volcano national park in search of some hot lava action. We arrived and set up the tent in a cool little campsite (it was also free, bonus!) just on the edge of the park, plus by a fault line zone…ok so instead of drunkards and tsunami’s we are now worried about camping half a mile from an active volcano and disappearing down a crack in the ground if it opens up… and lets face it it has to be some big crack to swallow me but Shona I’m a little more concerned about! We made our way to the visitors centre to get the lowdown on recent events from a park ranger, who instantly started telling us the problems of lava – other than the destruction and natural disaster problem that is. So it turns out that if we’d arrived 4 days ago we could have watched lava blazing a path down the mountain and wiping out the access road and a viewing platform set up for a previous eruption. But at present it has made itself some cosy little tunnels to flow through to help retain its heat and so is only visible at night and from a distance because of it wiping the access road out. Anyway, first things first, that evening we head up to the main crater viewing area, its a huge crater from old eruptions that has a smaller open crater within it which at the moment is bellowing out volcanic smoke and sulphur clouds high into the sky (great another thing to worry about when camping!). When viewed at dusk or in the dark the brewing lava 200m below the crater opening makes the crater glow bright orange producing this wierd eerie effect. The next day we check out the park in daylight and see the devasting affect that these eruptions cause. Miles and miles of dried lava fields surround the crater, all from previous years, we trekked down into the dormant crater of Kilauea Iki a volcano that produced a 1900ft fountain of lava back in the 50’s and has recently been used to film the re-make of the planet of the apes film. Its a barren and bleak area but bizarrely does have some beauty to it, walking across the lava and seeing the patterns it forms as it dries, lava tunnels and waves are everywhere but even stranger is the new growth of vegetation that somehow manages to grow right out of the lava! Later that night we headed down to the current eruption sight, just outside of the national park. We were 15 minutes late (no surprise to anyone that!) as they shut the gates at 8pm but a few dollars placed in a handshake to the guard and we were on our way. From where we parked the car you could see the glow and steam being produced by the lava entering the sea about 1 mile away from where we were. We set off in the pitch black with our head torches lighting the way, to our right (Shona’s left as she still hasn’t worked out which is what!) you could see lava in the distance coming down the mountain in small streaks and flashes of brightness every now and then as it set fire to any remaining flora (NOTE FROM SHONA: Nathan had put ‘fauna’ here instead of ‘flora’ but after laughing hysterically for 30 mins I thought I’d better change it being as he’s a veggie and all that, sorry nathan but thanks for the laugh hee hee!) that got in its way. We walked for around 20 minutes before getting to a dead end – I say dead end, this was a 3 day old flow of lava that had poured down and covered the road, you could feel the heat still coming from it and smell the sulphur. Just to our right you could still make out the lava flowing down the hill, it was amazing and the buzz from seeing it was amazing but, I know, how can you have a but when you have just seen lava?? But you knew that 5 minutes further along the lava was spectacularly entering the sea and you couldn’t get near it. Gutted but elated we headed back to the car stopping on the way to check out the local photographers photo’s, he has special permission from the park and landowners to get closer to the eruption and active lava flow and he had some awesome, as the yanks say, pictures which did add to the disappointed feeling of here’s what you could have seen!!