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| Kaimu Beach lava field. |
Well all going well I'll be well into my long walk on the Alpine Track by now. So rather than let the dust settle on my blog while I'm gone I've prepared a few posts to keep things ticking over while I'm slogging my way north. This a short post about a visit we made to the small city of Hilo on the island of Hawaii, otherwise known as The Big Island by the locals. We visited Hawaii as part of a long South Pacific cruise a few years ago and after being cooped up on the ship for a couple of weeks (relatively speaking) I'm sure nobody would be surprised to know that I wasn't that keen on hanging around the city for the day. So as soon as the ship had docked Sam and I jumped into a mini van and headed straight out of town down towards Hawaii Volcanoes National Park to check things out a little - so the Hilo heading is a little misleading I suppose.
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| Lava tree, Lava Tree State Monument park. |
The first spot we checked out today was the small Lava Tree State Monument. The lava trees in the park were created back in 1790 when a flood of lava 10 feet deep flowed through, what was rainforest. The lava solidified around the trees as the trees themselves burned away which then left the mould of the lava trees, this only occurred on Ohia Trees due to their high moisture content. Once we arrived at the park we took the short nature trail which wound around through the ghost forest for around twenty minutes before depositing us back at the car park. Coming from Melbourne the tropical vegetation here was also a bit of a highlight, the large Monkey Pod Trees being a particular stand out.
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| Monkey Pod Trees |
Jumping back into the welcoming air conditioning we headed down to our next stop, the MacKenzie State Recreation Area. This is another little coastal park, although it's a coastal park without a beach. The main feature of this spot is the lava cliffs plunging into the surging surf. Wandering up and down the coastline a little beneath the canopy of the Ironwood Trees it reminded me a little of the Casuarinas that line a lot of the Australian coastline, although we don't have the jagged jet black lava cliffs.
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MacKenzie State Recreation Area
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The jagged lava cliffs and surging surf at MacKenzie State Recreation Area.
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Back in the comfort of our mini van we continued south along highway 137 to where it ends at Kaimu Beach. The highway use to continue on it's way south until 1990 when an eruption caused lava to flow across the highway on its way to the sea (and more or less obliterate the nearby town of Kalapana at the same time). Parking the van we took the short walk across the very abrasive lava field to the black sand beach. It's baking hot here on the lava fields but the crashing shore break would keep most people out of the water I would think. Interestingly there are some signs of life already eking an existence out on what is a fairly recent lava flow, with quite a few coconut palms poking through the lava. Our whistle stop tour largely finished here unfortunately, after a nice lunch in the grounds of the historic Star of the Seas Painted Church we headed back to the bright lights of Hilo to do a little shopping, before once again boarding the ship and sailing off into another South Pacific sunset.
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Kaimu Beach lava field.
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There are a few shoots of green making their way sky ward.
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The black sands of Kaimu Beach.
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| The lava fields of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. |
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The Dirt.
We visited Hawaii on with Princess Cruises, Sam and I have been on cruises with them a few times over the years and they generally provide for a good value for money option. There is actually a bit of overnight trekking available at the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and while information is a little thin on the ground there has been
a journal of a walk written up on crazy guy, if anyone wants to check it out. Lava Trees State Monument is free as is Mackenzie State Recreation Area, although you'll pay if you want to camp there. I'm thinking that there is a small fee to access the coast at Kaima Beach but as we were on a tour it was already sorted for us so I'm not 100% sure.
Relevant Posts.
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| Sailing out of a fairly overcast Hilo. |
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| Another South Pacific sunset! |
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