Wednesday25th March
Hilo, Hawaii
Overnight we have sailed to another Hawaiian island. Our port is Hilo on 'Big Island' Hawaii. Together with our table companions and two others, we took a minibus tour of the island. We started by driving down Banyan Drive towards Hilo. This road is lined with Banyan trees that have been planted by famous people over the years. We saw a statue of King Kamehameha who came from Big Island and by 1810 had united all the islands into one nation. In front of the library is the Naha Stone this is a 3.5 ton lump of rock that was said to have been moved by King Kamehameha to become the chief. We went on to see Rainbow Falls on the Wailuku River. Our guide told us lots about the vegetation here. On the island they have one of the most active volcanoes in the world - Kilaurea. This has been continuously oozing lava since 1983. We drove to see some of the lava flows. On the way we went through a small town which was only 4 months ago in the path of the lava flow. You could see where the lava stopped behind some of the houses. We stopped at a beautiful little church called the Painted Church. It is a small wooden church built by missionaries and painted inside to communicate Christianity to the islanders who didn't speak English at that time. The church has been moved from its original site because of the lava. We then went to walk through one of the more recent lava flows. In the lava there were some wonderful patterns and there was already plants starting to grow here. We walked down to where the lava meets the sea at Black Sand Beach. The photo shows me on this beach standing on the black volcanic pebbles. We continued our drive along roads that have had lava flowing across and they have just managed to clear it but have yet to resurface the road. We saw an area where recent lava has wiped out all the housing. Many of the owners are still living here on top of the lava in new buildings. Our guide thought lots of these simple buildings could probably be moved if they were threatened again. Many of the other houses we passed on our drive are in the possible path of the lava including our guide's home! On the way back to the ship we stopped at Mauna Loa macadamia nut plantation. Macadamia nuts are one of Hawaii's biggest exports.