Lava Fountain
Category: Hawai’i
Exploring the islands
Helicopter Ride
Heliport
The Wai‘ōpae Tide Pools
One of the most beautiful places on the island is gone.
And they were popular, on any given day a couple dozen locals and tourists could be seen exploring the pools. You could swim across one or two, then have to climb across a few feet of old pahoehoe lava to drop into the next. The more adventurous were rewarded with even richer coral in the outermost pools where the ocean waves created more challenging swimming conditions.
Kapoho is Doomed
Burning Farms
One of the most poignant scenes we witnessed was the many farms destroyed by the lava
Houses are bad enough, seeing the farms in front of the lava flow was worse. I found myself looking through the telephoto lens at the neat greenhouses, the orchards green in the morning sunlight. The wide flow front was in the process of destroying so many farms, remorselessly moving through the neat rows of papaya trees.
Lava Fountain
To See The Eruption
How to get a good look at this eruption? Not a trivial question. The neighborhoods involved are under mandatory evacuation orders enforced by police and National Guard checkpoints. Quite a few people have been arrested and cited while trying to get closer to the lava.
This is the first major change in the eruptions of Kilauea in decades. This eruption features phenomena seen in the old documentaries, lava fountains hundreds of feet high, huge flows cutting through the rainforest. Things I have always wanted to see.
As much as I would like to visit, we have simply not tried to get into lower Puna. It is just not pono to interfere with residents frantically trying to salvage whatever they can ahead of the flows, or emergency services already overburdened with the ongoing situation.
Two legal ways exist for visitors to get a closer look… Fly or float. Either take a helicopter ride over the eruption, or take one of the lava boats to an ocean entry.
The boats have resumed tours, but active ocean entries have been sporadic, running for a week, then stopping. As of Monday morning the lava has re-entered the ocean at Kapoho Bay, and is again view-able from the water. The boat runs also involve a fairly long run all the way from Hilo harbor. The boat ramp the tours once used at Pohoiki now cut off by the flows.
Continue reading “To See The Eruption”Changes at Halemaʻumʻau
While much of the attention is on the lava flows and burning homes in lower Puna, there have been dramatic events at the summit of Kīlauea. The pit crater of Halemaʻumʻau that has been the subject of untold thousands of tourist photos has become almost unrecognizable.
The Mangoes are Here
I have a good crop of mangoes coming in!
I am just picking the first few fruit this weekend, there is a lot to come on the tree. I will be eating and drying mangoes for the next week.
The dehydrator is loaded and running as I type. There were not quite enough ripe mangoes to fill it just yet. No problem, I have ripe bananas as well, two trays are banana chips. Both were dipped into grapefruit juice for sealing, the grapefruit are also from the backyard.
A tray of bananas and a tray of mangoes are sprinkled with li hing mui powder. The result is a tangy sweet flavor that is a favorite in the islands. I have come to enjoy the flavor as well, adding it to my dried fruit for years now.
I also have an experiment running… Half a tray of bananas are sprinkled with chili powder. My idea, I suspect Deb will not partake of these chiliban chips.
