Woke up to another beautiful sunrise and a brother who was already on the move packing up as they fly out today at 5pm. I made my breakfast for 11am consumption and then packed up the tent and the car and then we weere waiting for Ben so we drove up to Wai’ohino Park and 40 minutes later realized Ben probably thought Volcano National Park when we said ‘park’ and sure enough when we doubled back to to Maka’i St they were not there and now we were the oes lagging behind. We drove towards Kiluea and into the rain. Ben texted to say they where at the visitors center and in the rain when we were about 10 minutes away.

Volcano National Park

We met them at 9:50am at the very crowded visitor center. It feels like to us that there are way more tourists on the island this time than in any of our other visits. We milled around for a bit and I talked with a ranger about hiking Mauna Loa (no permit needed if we go by way of the weather station road but advised that we arrive there at 11,000′ the night before and spend the night there to acclimatize and hike up the next day) I then caught a bit of the intro film which had no mention of the 2018 eruption and by then the rain had eased and we all found each other and decided to drive out to the steam bluffs over looking Halemaumau Crater.

We followed the crowds and hiked out to the crater rim. The 2018 eruption emptied the lava lake and we gazed out at Hale’mau’mau’.which is nearly 2wice as big and deep as a result of a big collapse once all the lava exited the chamber and covered Puna and Kapo’ho.

We said good bye to Ben, Carolina, Eva Luna and Avea as they are flying back to Maui for Christmas. It was a brief week with them but full of fun and re-connection. Ben’s girls are so much like him and it is wonderful to watch them grow and play with our girls. Ben and I had a moment, while all four girls were playing in the surf at Ho’okena, of can you believe we have four girls between us, 6 if you count the spouses and we are all here in Hawai’i together????

17 years ago it was just the two of us in our sleeping bags on the newly purchased lot in Na’alehu.

Afternoon at Volcano

After Ben and family left we drove down to the Kuanaokuaiki Campground and set up our tent. We then drove back up to Kiluauea Crater and hiked a section of Crater Rim Drive that was closed due to quake damage fro the 2018 eruptions.

We walked the broken road over looking Kilauea and Keainakako’i crater in a misty rain.

We also walked the Devastation trail to an overlook over Kiluauea Iki Crater

We then drove to the visitor center so Jakobi could get her Junior Ranger Badge which is now wooden instead of plastic, we watched two films and then drove back to the campground where only 3 of the 9 spots had anybody camping in them including us. We cooked dinner and then bedded down for the night. We slept on the hard packed lava and woke to a drizzly morning. Colleen went for a run while I made my breakfast for alter then packed up. The girls task is to pack the inside of the tent, all our bedding and stuff and then I pack up the rest. Colleen returned just as a rainbow appeared to the North over Kilauea crater. We then headed out of the park to Puna

As we drove out of the park and down the eastern slope of Kilauea we drove out of the gray drizzle into blue sky white cloud partly sunny HIlo and Puna side of the island. Puna has grown so much in the 20 years since I was first here. There are more houses, more traffic and new roads not to mention new lava flows. We stopped first in Pahoa at Island Naturals to by some food and I broke fast at 10:45 and ate while watching all the Punatics come and go feeling glad I never bought that lot in Seaview back in 1999.. I do not get a good feeling in Pahoa. Dirtbags is what comes to mind, all the boys in ratty t-shirts and surfer shorts with bleached hair tips and the girls in dreds holding feral children everyone looking wasted or hung over or both. Why do I loathe what I once had been (still am?) what 20 years ago I would have embraced as my tribe. Now I just want to leave this town. too many Punatics, not enough Hawai’ians. It’s a complicated feeling being haole ourselves which is why I could never live here full time, Hawai’i for Hawai’ian is what i firmly believe, We are guests on this island..

Visiting the 2018 Lava flow area

Breakfast consumed, shopping completed we get back in the car and head towards Pohiki and the 2018 lava flows. We drive down to Opihikao and down to the red road and turn east wondering if the road is open or if the flow would block our way. Just after Mackenzie State park where we have camped in years past, which I had hoped would get covered when the lava was flowing we came upon the flow, a road had been bulldozed and paved through it, just like the flow had cut through the lush greenness of the jungle blanketing it 20 feet high with rough tumbled black lava.

We pulled over in the middle of the 2nd flow and got out. On the uphill side you could see 2 smoking cones on the horizon, dead trees littered the flow, a river of black stone in a sea of green jungle.

We continued on to Isaac Hale State Park where we camped last time we were on the island. The flow covered half the park; the bathrooms a few camp spots and picnic tables remained but the playground and the site where we camped were covered.

The gravel path runs beneath a 20 foot wall of lava beyond which are buried the warm ponds, the tide pools of Kapoho and over 700 hundred homes.

The boat ramp is still there but it descends not into a bay but into a pond and where the bay and surf break were there is now is now a big sweeping black sand beach.

To the east the lava extends out into the ocean 100 yards. It is amazing. Having seen the old flows over past visits to see a new one and to be intimately familiar with what lies beneath is to be humble before the power of the Earth

We left Pohiki and drove to Kalani which is open and under new ownership and according to the girl in the cafe has a “new kind of vibe”. We went down to the ocean at the point which looks like a bulldozer cleared it and is no longer small and intimate but wide open and exposed. Doesn’t even feel like the same place which in the realm of space/time of course it isn’t.

The same can be said for Kehena beach which we visited next. I spent so many happy beach days there swimming with dolphins, playing in the waves, looking for shells but was hard put to feel like it was the same place. The sea has carved it up into a different configuration. Colleen remarked that it was cleaner. There were a alot more tourists and more bathing suits and the far end is open and cleared, the ocean comes up closer to the cliffs and there are a lot more trees lying naked and smooth across the sand.

The surf was imposing which is not different and after watching it for an hour and observing the 2 people I saw go in I went in myself. Getting in is easy, being in was choppy with big waves lifting me high above the beach and Jakobi who was playing in the wave wash. I didn’t stay in long and getting out was kind of scary but I did it without losing my dignity.

Jakobi and I played in the chop and surf while Colleen and Ambiana napped and read but we didn’t sat long at all.

Hilo & Rainbow Falls

We drove into Hilo to join the masses doing last minute shopping at Target and Safeway as it is Christmas Eve. We then stopped by the outdoor market on the bayfront to stock up on papaya, bananas and avocados. We then drove up to Rainbow Falls so Jakobi could climb the BIG Banyan Tree.

I was reminded of when I was at Kalani and I drove one of the volunteers to the airport at the end of their stay and his one request was to visit this tree before he left.

It was golden hour, beautiful sunset light at the falls and the banyan tree was lit up like a cathedral and the girls had a fun time climbing in it. I am not a tree climber.