We had time to kill. Our flight out of Big Island (sob! sob!) was some eight hours away. We decided to drive along the cliff-hugging road that goes from Kona to South Point on Big Island.
And, then, quite accidentally, we found Kona Joe.
Glad we did. It definitely was one of the most beautiful coffee estates I have ever seen. What a view from the verandah of the coffee tasting room.
It was a cloudy, cool, and drizzly kind of day, the kind of day you typically want to stay indoors and watch the rain running down the window pane. But we were in Volcanoes National Park in Hawaii, and the weather was no damper for us. We were on our way to hike down to the Kilauea Iki crater, a volcano crater that had last erupted in 1959, and still shows activity in the form of rising steam from many cracks on the crater floor. When Kilauea did erupt in 1959, it was quite a spectacular eruption, as has been described in great detail here.
Kilauea is a stuff of legends. In Hawaiian mythology, Kilauea is where most of the conflict between the volcano goddess Pele and the rain god Kamapua’a took place. Pele is revered all over Hawaii Big Island. Some lava formations are named after her, such as Pele’s tears (small teardrop shaped lava droplets) and Pele’s hair (thin, brittle strands of volcanic glass).
Rainbow Falls! The name conjures up vivid imagery. I had imagined a large waterfall, resplendent in its cascading glory, and a huge rainbow framing it end to end. Gentle reader, I will have to let you down. For I didn’t get to see any rainbow in Rainbow falls.
We were in Hilo, Big Island, in the “Old Hawaiian Bed and Breakfast”, which was very close to the rainbow falls state park, so on the day we were leaving Hilo, we decide to go see the Rainbow falls and the so called “Boiling Pots”. These two places were within a mile of each other, and, in fact, on the same Wailuku river.
If you go to the Volcanoes National Park on Big Island, Hawaii, do not miss seeing the Thurston Lava Tube. It gives you that eerie feeling of being in a dark place, as dark as it gets inside of Mother Earth. And, who knows, it may even change your worldview. : )
But first lets get done with the basic science of lava tube. What are lava tubes? When lava flows down the side of a volcano, it comes in contact with air, and cools. The top of the lava stream soon starts to form a solid crust, while the lava lower down remains hot. Soon, this provides the inner hot lava a great conduit to flow long distances without getting cooled, since the outer crust acts as an insulator. Finally, when the lava flow stops, it drains out, leaving a hollow tube. Lava tubes can be a few feet long, or can extend miles. One of the lava tubes off the Mauna Loa volcano in Hawaii is estimated to be some 30 miles or more long.
We were in Hilo, Hawaii, and the rain was pouring down when we got up. That was not the worry, because it was just another day in Hilo, where it rains a lot, in fact, quite a lot, all of 140 inches a year. The place is wonderfully green.
We had plans to go to Akaka Falls State Park near Hilo, before we drive off to the Volcanoes National Park to the south of Big Island. R was feeling a bit under the weather, and decided that he is going to just sleep at the back of the car all the way. He was conserving his energy for seeing the volcanoes.
From highway 19, also called the Hawaii Belt Road, we took the left turn to Highway 220 about 8 miles north of Hilo. The road passes through a wonderful little town called Homomu, which looks every inch like a western town. Do check out Ed’s Bakery there. It has some mean ‘Molten Lava’ passion-fruit (Lilikoi, in Hawaiian) jam that you must taste. Its great stuff!