Rob & Connie vs. The Volcano!

The ship pulled into Hilo at around 6am. By 8:30 we were dockside and waiting for our tour guide who never showed up. The cruise director did some fast thinking, one of the other tour companies got a bonus contract, and we got Garry! To the cruise director's credit, he pulled it off so smoothly that Connie didn't realize we suddenly had a guy from the bird watcher tour doing our volcano tour.

We started out at the rim of Kilauea. After a short visit to the visitor center, Garry took us out to a up close and personal look at some of the steam vents. They were spewing some rather unique gases. This was not a "normal" stop, but it was a great place to look at the birds who nest in the rim. We also learned the meaning of, "I wouldn't stand there if I were you." There was a large crack near the lip and one of the other guests started to step over there to take a picture. Garry quickly hauled him back. Apparently chunks of the rim break off regularly and a trained eye can spot the borderline pieces. I (Rob), to Connie's horror, laid down on a safe spot on the edge [yeah, right -- Connie] and peered straight down into the caldera. Took a couple of pictures too.
Garry noted that, unlike most geology, everything within view was less than 30 years old. I cautiously [yeah, right -- Connie] backed off the edge.

We then went to a spot couple miles away where Garry showed us how to find Pele's tears and Pele's hair. Pele's tears are small tear shaped bits of lava which cooled in the air and landed intact. Pele's hair is a naturally formed strand of silica no thicker than a human hair. It bore a striking resemblance to a single strand of fiber optic cable. Apparently, they are formed behind a Pele's tear like a comet's tail.

Then we had lunch at a spot with no bathrooms, but a fantastic view of the coastline. At lunch Garry pointed out the vog, which is the cloud of volcanic gas and mist which flows from the Pu'u O'o vent on the island. This was to play a large part of our evening (more later).

Then we went down to see where the lava was entering the ocean. Because there was a period where the government was continuously rebuilding the ranger station, it now consists of a mobile home and cheap asphalt turnaround about two miles from the lava tubes. Connie started out with Rob, but decided it was too far and went back to the ranger station. I (Rob) pushed on, and found out no one could go the last half mile because a section of the shelf was about to collapse. So I got as close as I could, took a couple of pictures, and asked enough questions to figure out Garry knew a lot more about birds than geology. After running around on the lava flows a little more, my throat started to get sore, so I turned around and headed back to Connie. At this point, we both were feeling a little ill.

Then we went back up the volcano to the Thurston Lava Tube. Garry pointed out and told us about several birds and their history. We also learned about pigs and their impact on the birds' habitat. Apparently, they have an open hunting season on the animals. Considering how expensive it is to live on the Big Island, I would bet a fair number of people make them a free staple of their diet. We also heard about the Pig god and Pele (they had this love-hate thing) and I was the only person to know the name of the fish form of the god. Humuhumu nukunuku apua'a is the Hawaiian state fish which makes a pig grunting noise underwater (more on that in the next entry).

By the time Connie and I got back to the ship neither of us was feeling OK. Apparently, some people are more sensitive to vog than others and we were a couple of canaries. We ended up sleeping through the ship's evening view of the lava glow which we heard was quite spectacular. We bought a photo.