Aloha Hawaii! Our 10 Day Cruise to Hawaii on the Disney Wonder, September 7, 2015 Trip Report completed 07/31/2016 About This Page:

[goofyboysmama]

Originally Posted by Disneybine

Wow, sorry you got soaking wet on your excursion but the waterfalls sure look amazing!

Good job being frugal at the goodies store. I'll admit, I might have gone crazy over the chocolates

It was very difficult to only come out of there with just a few things!

****************************
Hilo continues: Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut factory and Thurston Lava Tube

Hmm... I guess my pictures were ok, it looked like a couple weren't loading right. Anyhoo...

We all piled back onto the bus, wet and warm, but impressed. I didn't like having to leave so early, but I took lots of photos that I could look at later and it was still pouring down rain Our next stop was at the macadamia nut factory and I love macadamia nuts so I was ready to see what was next.


Of course!




Next to the property were acres and acres of orchards of produce and nuts. The driver told us that these particular orchards are papaya. He told us that literally tons of fruit aren't picked and just go to waste. I thought that was so sad as there are hungry, down-and-out people in Hawaii, just like everywhere else. I'm sure much smarter people than I have thought about this problem, but it just seemed so sad to waste all that fruit.




These blurry photos are of the actual macadamia nut trees.


These pine trees were all over the place and I loved them. They were so alien looking to me. I asked the driver the name and he said they were Norfolk Island Pine trees.


These flowers were around the visitor center.


A character meet!


Which one's the nut? har har


The sun had finally made an appearance. When it did, it came out in full force! (We heard from locals all the time, apologies for it "being so hot and humid - it's never like this!" )


You could take seeds and seedlings home with you - customs approved! I wanted badly to take some flowers back with me, but we still had 11 days left (!) of vacation and I was pretty sure they wouldn't make it back intact In case you can't zoom in, what you're looking at on this side of the stand are blue ginger, Hawaiian ti plant, bird of paradise, orchids and the mac nut. I can imagine bringing a giant coconut seed on the plane with me in my carry on!

We went out to the back where they had a small place that sold sandwiches and ice cream. I tried a Portuguese hot dog, a local favorite, and the kids and Dh got some sandwiches and chips. The food was VERY reasonable and tasty and we got to sit down in the shade under some fans. I wanted to try the ice cream but I wanted to look around some more. The kids got to sample some mac nut ice cream.








While I shopped around, Dh and the kids checked out the factory


Lots to choose from. This is just one corner. I got some variety packs.








On the grounds behind the visitor center was a garden that you could walk around in.






I have no idea what this fruit is




This was our bus. Green Travel and Tour is one of the companies contracted under Island Marketing, Ltd. We loaded back on with our goodies and headed for our next destination: Thurston Lava Tube, Hawaii Volcanoes National Park


It had started raining again while on the road to the park. It stopped, but things were still pretty damp by the time we got to the lava tube. I'm glad we wore comfortable shoes and clothes - you'll see why!


Here's our driver giving us a little science of lava tubes. I wish I could remember his name I can't find my spiral notebook that I took so many notes in during our excursions


Since the area was part of the National Park Service (like much of Hawaii), there were handy signs everywhere, noting the vegetation and flowers. Like I said before, we'd missed most of the flowers, so I got lots of foliage instead






Ferns everywhere! It felt very prehistoric.






Telling us about the ferns


Here, he's telling us how the baby ferns curl out like a monkey's paw I think. Also, you can eat them




I don't EVEN want to know what is living in that hole I know there aren't supposed to be snakes on Hawaii islands, but what about spiders, centipedes and who knows what??




There were a few left






After we walked about 1/3 mile (downhill, steep slope) we came to the bridge leading to the lava tube. It almost looks like a movie set!


Who knows where that (or to what) that hole leads...




It looks like a cave. It's formed by a river of lava that starts to cool and harden on the surface. As it cools and hardens, the lava underneath still is moving. When it eventually empties out to wherever, it leaves a tube shaped cave. This particular tube was discovered by a journalist. There used to be stalactites hanging from the ceiling, but they were all taken as souvenirs by tourists


Volcanic rock is porous so the water just drains through it like a sieve.


We had to really be careful to watch our steps. The floor of the tube was rocky and puddles were everywhere.


#lavatubeselfie




I know it doesn't look like it, but that "puddle" is ankle deep! We were all trying to skirt around it, but the wall came out so it was hard to get around it. Finally, I was like, whatevs, and walked right through it. (Cold!)


See the vegetation growing "down"?


There was a little dark cave on the way out












It's so damp and moist in the rain forest, it looks like the tree bent over like a noodle!


Crater Rim Trail. Maybe next time.


Next: craters and volcano

[cubfancolleen]

Yum, macadamia nuts!!
I was laughing at the thought of you dragging a coconut tree down the aisle of the plane on the way home!

[benchley]

Love the lava tube cave. What a great adventure

[chezp]

We loved our visit to the lava tube and found it fascinating. The tour of the macadamia nut factory looked interesting too, although I'm with you about the fruit. That is a shame that so much goes to waste.

[goofyboysmama]

Originally Posted by cubfancolleen

Yum, macadamia nuts!!
I was laughing at the thought of you dragging a coconut tree down the aisle of the plane on the way home!

LOL! I'm sure folks have tried to bring some strange stuff home from Hawaii

Originally Posted by benchley

Love the lava tube cave. What a great adventure

It was short but a nice experience.

Originally Posted by chezp

We loved our visit to the lava tube and found it fascinating. The tour of the macadamia nut factory looked interesting too, although I'm with you about the fruit. That is a shame that so much goes to waste.

You could only take photos from the outside windows, you can't actually go inside, but still pretty neat.

[goofyboysmama]

(I took lots of pictures here, so "volcano" will be next.)

I found my notebook! The pages almost still look wet from me taking notes on the bus and my handwriting's all shaky, lol. The bus driver's name is Tony!
Here's a sample:

"9/13 Hilo, got lei'ed off the boat. 0928: on time! on the bus. rainy - rainiest city in the US! Hilo = 150 in/year, Seattle 40 inches!
Hilo = agriculture, not tourism. The area we are driving through is part of Hawaiian Homelands - can only live there if you have Hawaiian blood. Hilo is a good place to stay."

We drove on Chain of Craters Road until we came to the lava flow that happened July 1974. We stopped on the side of the road and were given time to actually go out onto the lava flow. The crater that you will see is called Lua Manu Crater. Sadly, it was our one and only stop on the road, but it was a good one.


"Lua Manu" means bird pit. It's kind of an optical illusion, but the crater is about 330 feet (about 100 meters) across and about 125 feet deep (about 38 meters).


I'm standing as close to the edge as I feel comfortable here. Tony explained that the crater was formed not by explosion "like a volcano" but as lava flows, sometimes it drains through the rock underneath, then the surface of the flow collapses and it leaves a pit.


Here, you can see where the lava continued to flow into the pit.














It was weird to pick up. The lava was at once porous, but heavy - and prickly! Actually some of it was very sharp. Tony warned us to be very careful as we explored. Falling on the lava could cause a nasty injury.


I don't know what kind of lava this is, but I love the pearly bubbles. Tony told us that the two kinds of lava that we could see were a smooth kind and a sharp prickly kind called 'a'a (pronounced "ah-ah"). He said the name comes from the sound you make when walking on it barefoot! (lol) I'm not sure, but who knows?


This kind of lava was very light, as in very airy.


There were these kind of holes everywhere. I was very careful walking around. The last thing I needed was a twisted ankle!


Max


"Life finds a way." Dr. Ian Malcolm - Jurassic Park


It doesn't look like 100ft down, does it?


They were going to give me a heart attack being so close! (If you only knew. Titus is kind of a daredevil.) The way the lava cooled right in front of them is neat.


I tried to catch the colors - it wasn't all black and gray.















This is from the other side of the road. I could imagine the lava flowing towards me.

Next: Kilauea Iki, Kilauea Caldera, Halema'uma'u Crater

[chezp]

Oh wow, that lava is just fascinating, but I can imagine that crater is pretty dangerous as well!

[Disneybine]

I LOVE the quote from Jurassic Park! What a fascinating excursion!

[MayraLR]

Wow, very impressive seeing the crater that close! Just like you, I would've been having a heart attack with my 2 youngest because they like to live on the edge.

[goofyboysmama]

Originally Posted by chezp

Oh wow, that lava is just fascinating, but I can imagine that crater is pretty dangerous as well!

I'm glad they didn't put anything silly like guardrails or whatever, but apparently tourists can really get hurt and do get hurt in Hawaii! (As I'm sure you heard when you were there.) Probably from underestimating how dangerous things can be.

Originally Posted by Disneybine

I LOVE the quote from Jurassic Park! What a fascinating excursion!

More good stuff coming up!

Originally Posted by MayraLR

Wow, very impressive seeing the crater that close! Just like you, I would've been having a heart attack with my 2 youngest because they like to live on the edge.

Just wait until you see the next one!
***********************************

Hilo: Kilauea and Halema'uma'u

We continued on Crater Rim Drive to the Kilauea Iki Crater Overlook. In 1959, Kilauea Iki ("Little Kilauea") erupted and formed a lake of lava. The neat thing Tony told us about the crater was how long it took to cool and finally crystallize - about 35 years! Today you can walk across the crater on a trail.


Can you see the faint white line crossing the middle of the crater? That's the hiking trail. The crater is a mile long and 400 feet deep! It was pretty cloudy that day. I don't know if the mist is from clouds or from the steam coming up from the floor of the crater. Yes, steam Apparently it's still hot underneath and rainwater seeps into cracks and makes steam...




The floor. This was a lake of lava. Literal waves of lava "washed up" on the "shore".


You can see the trail a little better here.




See that white area off-center to the right? There are little specks near it - those are people!



I'm sorry it was so misty/steamy/cloudy... The climax of our excursion was going to be seeing Halema'uma'u Crater in the Kilauea Caldera from the Jagger Museum. We continued on to the Thomas A. Jaggar Museum. It was still drizzly so the vistas aren't postcard perfect, but still pretty impressive.








Sooo... the plaque above says that Mauna Loa, the world's largest volcano is "looming" right in front of me. It is literally 20 miles away. All we saw was a wall of clouds and smoke... and of course the craters right in front of us

We went inside to explore and wait for some of the drizzle to pass. I LOVE any kind of museum. All of the National Parks in Hawaii that we saw really did a great job in displaying and explaining their surroundings. The rangers and staff were always very nice and seemed to like talking about their home.


This ranger is telling us all about different kinds of lava.




This is called Pele's Hair. It happens when lava becomes airborne and is spun around by the wind into long hair-like strands.


Back outside again. That's my boy over there walking on the wall #getdownfromthere


Here's Titus practicing with the pano on his iPod.




I went back in to explore.










The Halema'uma'u Crater in the summit of Kilauea is the home of Pele, the Hawaiian goddess of fire and volcanoes.




cool








Back outside, the wind had shifted a little and we could see a little more.






Looking down the "side"






Making our own earthquake


This is US!


We could really see Halema'uma'u smoking much clearer now, just in time for us to leave. By the way, the rest of the big giant hole in the ground is the Kilauea Caldera. (The caldera is 8 miles in circumference.)

Before we headed to the bus, I got some magnets and Martha got the kids some volcano books from the gift shop. Our tour was almost over, but we had one more stop to make. We were making good time and I had no reason to be worried about getting back to the port on time.

Next: Orchids, orchids and more orchids!

[chezp]

Oh wow, it's amazing the difference the weather can make. When we were there, we had a beautiful clear day and could see everything perfectly.

[xwewhisper]

How crazy that you couldn't see a huge volcano 20 miles away! Looks like a great museum though!

[cubfancolleen]

Too bad the weather got in the way of the views. But maybe that gave you more time to read the displays?

[kcamozzi67]

Wow - that hike looks amazing! I love "Pele's hair", that is so neat

[MayraLR]

Wow, those are some amazing sights!