Volcanoes! Location: Hilo, Hawaii Day 12 by Wayne & Karen Brown

Because we are docked we will not be using Zodiacs for our exploring today. We will be taking a bus to the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and hiking around the volcanoes.

For the ancient Hawaiians volcanoes were an big part of the lives. Volcanoes could be both good and bad. Hawaiians used the volcanic rock to build their homes. But their homes could also destroyed by erupting volcanoes. The erupting volcanoes were both spectacular and frightening. One of the gods that ancient Hawaiian worshiped was Pele (PELL-EE), the goddess of the volcano.

From Hilo a 45-minute bus ride through a tropical rainforest brings us to the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. The large park has almost 10% of all the land on Hawaii. This park is a mix of lava fields, volcanic calderas, lava tubes, wilderness, and sea coast. The park includes the world's most massive volcano, Mauna Loa (MON-AH LOW-AH) and Kilauea (KILL-AH-WAY-AH), the world's most active volcano.

In the park much of what we see is black lava covering the ground, called lava fields. There are no trees in the lava fields since the lava burned up any plants as it flowed down the side of the volcano toward the sea. We hike across the lava fields to the edge of a gigantic hole in the ground. This is Kilauea caldera. It is over a mile across! A long time ago their was no hole here. This caldera was formed when the lava under the ground here flowed into the sea and the roof of this huge underground cavity collapsed.

The area all around us is covered by lava. The lava flowed across the ground like fiery rivers. In recent eruptions it has even covered some of the roads! We can tell that there is still hot molten magma under the ground because as we hike across the lava fields we see some places where hot steam is coming out of the ground.

Kilauea is still an active volcano. If we had been here last week we would have seen it erupting and seen red hot lava flowing into the ocean.

When lava flows during an eruption the lava touching the ground hardens as the ground cools the lava. The air also cools the lava exposed to the air. As the eruption continues molten lava continues flowing through this tube of solid lava. When the volcano stops erupting the molten lava flows out of the tube, leaving a hollow tube. Today we are going to explore a lava tube!

We continue hiking across the lava fields and the trail leads back into the rainforest. It has started to rain now. It's funny that it didn't start to rain until we got to the rainforest. We guess that is why they call this a rainforest!

We walk into a large depression in the rainforest. In this depression is a beautiful forest of huge tree ferns. We walk by ferns that are bigger than we are! The trail leads to a bridge that enters the large dark opening of a big, ancient lava tube.

Inside the lava tube we can see it is made completely of solid black lava! It is like a cement tube. There are lights in the tube so we can easily explore the tube. Even though we are inside a tube we are still getting wet. Water drips on us from cracks in the ceiling where tree roots poke through. At the end of the lava tube stairs lead out and back into the fern forest.

We notice that the lava tube continues behind the stairs, but it is fenced off. The gate in the fence is unlocked so we go through and down into the lava tube. This lava tube has no trail or lights. Fortunately we brought some caving lights that we can wear on our heads. We put on our headlights and slowly walk into the blackness of the lava tube.

As walk further into the lava tube we hear some noise behind us. We meet two people, college students - Heather and Adam, stumbling in the dark. They don't have lights so invite them to walk with us. We walk deeper into the tube. After about 15 minutes we come to the end of the lava tube. A big chunk of lava is on the floor. We notice something under the lava chunk that is reflecting our lights. We reach under the lava and pull out a geocache!

A geocache is something that is hidden for people to find. Geocaches are hidden all around the world. It is like a scavenger hunt. A geocache usually has some treasures inside that you can take, if you leave something else in it. There is also a log book where you write your name and a message. All you need to go geocaching is a computer and a GPS (Global Positioning Satellite) receiver. You can learn more about geocaching and find out where geocaches are where you live by visiting the web site: www.geocaching.com.

After we sign the log book and put the geocache back we all hike out of the lava tube. We say goodbye to Matt and Erica and return to the bus for your ride back to Odyssey.

After everyone is back on board Odyssey leaves the dock. We are now leaving the Hawaiian Islands behind and heading south across the Pacific Ocean. We will be exploring remote and often uninhabited islands. Our first stop will be Christmas Island!

Best Fishes,
Wayne & Karen Brown

Kilauea caldera was once filled with red hot, bubbling lava. Now the lava is cold, dark and black.

Hot steam is coming out of cracks in the lava field. This shows us that there must be magma underground here.

Wearing her raincoat, Karen stands on a bridge in the fern forest that leads to the entrance of an old lava tube.

Inside the lava tube we can see that this is a huge tube made of lava. You can see roots of trees hanging down from the ceiling.

Karen is with our friends Adam and Heather at the end of the lava tube with a geocache.