We
convene in Hilo at 9am on Wed. 2/20. You'll want to arrive
here at least the day before, staying at the small, family-run
Dolphin Bay Hotel. After visiting the fabulous Wednesday
morning farmers/crafts market and some stroll time around
downtown Hilo - great shops as well as the Pacific Tsunami
Museum, Imiloa Astronomy Center and Islands Discovery
Center. We'll also walk today at Onomea Bay with its swaying
palms and ocean vistas.
Then
we shuttle westward, and upward, to Hawaii Volcanoes National
Park, at 4000' elevation. We will be in this remarkable
area for the next three days and nights, staying, as always,
at the Morse Family's cozy rental home in Volcano Village,
where we also find a couple of good restaurants and lots
of huge, native tree ferns! On our many varied walks here,
we'll encounter mile-high forests, lava caves, nene geese,
and the ever-steaming Kilauea Caldera. We'll peer into
Halemaumau, the "house of ferns", and stride
across the remarkable, cooled lava "pavements"
of Kilauea Iki Crater. We'll get the group at least part
way up the trail on Mauna Loa's enormous summit flank
for unforgettable views and lava fields galore. We once
again will arrange a private tour into the amazing Kula
Kai Lava Tube. The current lava flow's red glow (2000-
degree magma!) is best seen after dark and we will hope
to see it one night, if conditions allow.
Our next "base" is in the island's southwest
corner, usually referred to as the South Point area, or
Ka Lae. We have four glorious days and nights here enjoying
the spacious plantation-style inn owned by two fantastic
islanders, Kenny and Kilohana. They have great food and
beds for us as well as plans for a forest hike/native
plants lei-making session and a pa'ina (celebration) meal
with Hawaiian music. One evening you can even take part
in a Hawaiian language class, beginner's level of course!
Although
parts of this island, especially in Kona, are full of
tourists, South Point has few people and nothing but sea,
sun and that magical feeling of being at land's end, a
place where you can go no farther. There is but one town
of any size - Naalehu - and no souvenir shops or commercial
sprawl. Just the whistling wind, sheer volcanic cliffs,
the surging sea - and a glimpse into local life as we
encounter local Hawaiians fishing and enjoying their rural
lives.
Our
walks will take in sights like the fabulous park reserve
of Kahuku, with its impressive native forest, old pit
craters, and the fissure that fed lava flows during Mauna
Loa's 1868 eruption - this special place open for us through
special arrangement; the unique Papakolea Green Sand Beach/Mahana
Bay trek, with protected ocean swimming in an eroded,
littoral cinder cone loaded with greenish olivine; to
a shoreline cave with ancient rock art; and past cliffside
fishing-folk to the very southernmost point indeed, where
we stand humbled beside a small, rock-platformed, centuries-old
temple, the Kalalea Heiau - the crashing waves just beyond.
On
Thursday, 2/28 we return you to Hilo/Kona hotels or airports
by 1 pm.
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