lava – Steffi & Gerry: Trip around the World

Road to Hana

Every guidebook on Hawaii lists the Road to Hana as a must-do on Maui. Usually, they also warn you not to start driving late, so we set our alarms to 6 a.m. Still, we were not the first ones on Hwy 336, which makes things a bit… hectic. The road’s purpose was to connect smaller towns around the island and not to achieve a touristic target. This means: many one-way bridges, hardly stopping / parking possibilities at the points of interest and sometimes dangerous traffic situations. Also, some spots are difficult to catch, even with google maps app running, or they are on private property and are now closed for public.

Nevertheless, it was still a joyful ride to Hana and beyond. Waterfalls, rainforest, beaches, lava tubes and valley overlooks – it was worth the time, even though we didn’t even get out of the car in Hana as we gave up finding a convenient parking space.

How to park
Waterfalls
Black Sand Beach
Sea arch
Stay out!
Road to Hana
Lava stalactites
Waterfalls

Haleakala Sunrise

Sunrise on Haleakalā has become so famous that crowds were fighting for a few parking slots on the summit of the volcano. Nowadays access to the summit between 3 and 7 A.M. has been limited. Fortunately, we got one of the few last-minute registrations two days ago. It didn’t change the fact that you need to get up early for the sunrise: we set our alarms to 3 A.M. and reached the summit at around 5 o’clock.

It was freezing cold at 3’055 m.a.s.l. and a bit early for sunrise, but right on time for a few astrophotography pictures.

Moon (center), Venus (to the left), Saturn (green object to the right), clouds, crater, beginning dawn and the Milky Way… proud of this shot! 🙂

All together…
Stellarium screenshot
Milky Way
Nightsky over Haleakala

After a quick warm-up in the car (that could be misinterpreted… 😉 ) we rejoined the sunrise viewers at 6 A.M. with the beginning dawn. It really was a wonderful experience to see the sky changing colors. Again, clouds make the difference, without them it might have been much less spectacular.

Setting dawn
There it is!
A real spectacle

With the sun and temperatures rising we checked other overlooks and did a part of the Halemau’u Trailhead to the crater.

Clouds
Inside of the crater
Volcanic cones

Place of Refuge

The Pu’uhonua o Hohaunau is a National Historical Park and once was a place of refuge for criminals (as for being sentenced to death because your shadow touched the chief’s house). Here, arriving after a dangerous journey through the water you got absolution of your crimes.

On the other side of the Great Wall (built of lava stone) there were royal grounds, nowadays reconstructed buildings and tools from the early Hawaiians.

Close to the National Park is a good place to see sea turtles and to snorkel… which we did, of course.

After dinner in Kailua-Kona we watched Manta Rays (reaching up to 7m in length) feeding small fishes, attracted by the hotel Sheraton’s light beams.

Green Turtles at Black Sand Beach

On our way to Kona we stopped at Punalu’u Black Sand Beach to see, well, a black sand beach. Not surprisingly, the black sand has volcanic origins and one can still see the typical ripples on the bigger lava rocks.

It was also nice to observe several green sea turtles, in the water and ashore.

Next, we headed to Ka Lae (aka South Point), the southernmost point of the United States. (Key West is just the southernmost point of continental US). Teenagers demonstrate their courage by jumping either from the cliffs into the sea or into a blowhole and swimming through an underwater cave.

Further plans had to be postponed due to the rain on the “almost guaranteed sunshine”-west coast of Big Island.

Volcanoes National Park

At time of booking the Volcanoes National Park would have been one of the very big highlights of our trip, as places with volcanic craters, a lava lake and active lava flows, while still being easily accessible, are hard to find elsewhere in the world (therefore this place is also called “drive-in volcano”).

Now, the park changed quite a bit between May and July 2018:

“Beginning in May, 2018, the lava lake that existed inside Halema‘uma‘u crater disappeared and lava flows from Puʻu ʻŌʻō crater have ceased. There is no molten lava or lava glow to see anywhere in or out of the park.”

A highly recommended movie about the events here:

https://www.nps.gov/havo/planyourvisit/lava2.htm

But on the positive side, the park had re-opened (after another closure due to government shutdown in January, just a few weeks before our visit). Even without molten lava the park was still worth a visit: the Kilauea Caldera is still impressive. The views on lava flows of the 70ies are also nice to see, and a hike over the Manua Ulu eruption(s) (1969 – 1974) on hardened lava structures is a very extraordinary experience.

Kilauea crater
Lava Love Mobile
Hardened lava
Lava lake (before 2018)
Walking on lava
Petroglyphs
Earthquake damages
Holei Sea Arch
Sulphur Banks

Passage through Mordor (Tongariro Crossing)

Grey sky, clouds and even drizzling rain. Not a very promising beginning of the day. But we knew the forecast and hoped for better weather on our much-awaited hike: Tongariro Alpine Crossing, according to several sources one of the best day-hikes in the world:

“Trek across a volcanic alpine landscape of dramatic contrasts – steaming vents, glacial valleys, ancient lava flows, alpine vegetation and vivid crater lakes, all with stunning views.”

A hike which also got a popularity boost after the screening of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, as the volcano Mount Ngauruhoe was used for Mount Doom of Mordor.

A shuttle bus took us to the start of the track and guess what? Sunshine! Ok, now it’s just 19.4km of hiking track, 1196m change of altitude and many other hikers with the same goal.

It’s difficult to describe this track better than DOC has done it already (see above). So from our side just the confirmation, that this hike should really be on your bucket list for New Zealand. Wandering over not-so-old lava flows, seeing the stunning colors, smelling the sulfur scents, hearing the steam vents and overlooking crater landscapes out of this world was just… wow!

It took us almost exactly 6 hours (incl. breaks) to reach the end of the track and the bus stop. Guess what? We just arrived on time for one of our shuttle (they run every hour) and it had just four seats left.

Starting point
Mount Ruapehu
Lava formations
“Mount Doom”
Volcano lakes
Recent eruption
Before our slide down
Volcano lake
Great views
North Crater