Day 14
Today we headed straight to the Volcanoes National Park so we could do a deeper dive on this area of Hawai’i. We arrived at the park around 12pm so we stopped for an early lunch of Pizza at the Volcano House hotel (near the visitors centre) before setting off on our Shaka Guide self drive tour of Chain of Craters Road.
We did three hikes:
The Devastation Trail: A very short easy 1 mile hike along the route of the 1959 eruption. On this hike we saw the barren lava and Pu’u Pu’ahi cinder cone on one side of the trail and (in contrast) where the forrest is making a come back on the other side of the trail.
Mauna Ulu Fisure Trail: More of a stroll than a hike around the site of the 1969 eruption that destroyed a forrest area. You could see the petrified Ohia trees as you walked along following the trail by looking out for the rock piles that guide the way. The petrified trees look like hollow obelisks. When you get up close you can see the melted, twisted vegetation.
Pu’u Loa Petrograph Trail: A pretty mellow 40 minute hike (20 minutes each way) over a lava field. At the end of the trail is a boardwalk where you can view some of the 23,000 petroglyphs in the area. Most of them are little holes or circles but some are recognisable as pictures of people or families.
We also visited lots of craters, lava fields and outlooks, including a pit crater and sea arch.
It was a long tour, 5.5 hours including the hikes (add to that 2 hours of driving each way, to and from the park) but well worth it. I really think we saw most of the key sites over the last two days.
[This post is being interrupted…]
I feel I need to interject here, the drive from the hotel to Kilauea was along a volcano saddle road, it went from around sea level to a peak altitude of 2,100m and then back down to around 200m before getting to Kilauea. Beautiful, pristine fresh tarmac, wide enough for 3-4 lanes and a speed limit of 55 most of the way, which everyone ignores. We had a fun drive back on the first day following a Dodge Challenger averaging around 85-90 most of the way.. Amazing. so when Carol-Ann said she wanted to go again the next day I had no objections. I really like the Ford Expedition. 7 seats with luggage space, 3.5 litre V6 with around 450HP, 10 speed auto, it broke the laws of physics how quickly it could accelerate. Great car. I want one. I’ll cover the car in a future post.. Its worth it.
Day 15
Today we left Hawai’i behind and travelled to Maui.
The hire car in Maui is a bag of nails, it’s a Nissan Pathfinder from c.2012 (although Phil actually thinks its worse than my Suzuki!!!). There is definitely a suspicious noise (possibly wheel bearing or diff. issue) coming from the back. It doesn’t have satnav (of any kind) or CarPlay. We had to borrow a seperate Garmin satnav unit from Avis which isn’t up to date! Oh and the brakes are just a little bit “dodgy” for mountainous country. (They fully faded on the trip back down the volcano from our Mountain Bike trip - more on that tomorrow -Phil)
I feel this is a fall from grace after the 2023, brand new, Ford Expedition, full size-SUV.
Luckily, the Hotel Wailea more than makes up for the rubbish hire car. It’s absolutely stunning here and I know we are going to be very happy.
- Hippie x -