Rose early for the drive to Kilauea Volcano National Park. We drove to Hilo on the east coast then down to the town of Volcano before entering the park. We went to the Visitors Centre and decided to do the walk down into the crater Kilauea Iki which erupted in 1959. This was a huge lake of lava that has now solidified although there are still spots where steam vents to the surface. It took an hour and a half to walk through the forest down to the barren crater floor below. Quite a few people here including a University Geology group. The scale was amazing and there were all sorts of different solidified lava formations.

On to the Thurston Lava Tube which we walked through and was interesting. There are currently no active flows of lava from the main Kilauea Volcano. There was an eruption back in April but this has stopped and the lava lake in the main crater has subsided. There was a constant amount of smoke and gas coming from the crater but we didn't get to see the rivers of lava that I had hoped to see. Aparently at night visitors can see the glow of the lava reflected in the smoke and steam coming from the crater.

Back to Waikoloa via Hilo where we had afternoon coffee followed by a bar-b-q dinner and cards.