Today started with a 5am wake up call so we could get to the airport for 7:15. It’s time for our helicopter flight!
It was Darrin’s first ever, so he was pretty stoked! He had an amazing time and shot lots of video. Unfortunately I was on the still camera and my motion sickness set in about half way through so not as many photos as I would have liked.
We started by flying over Hilo and checking out Rainbow Falls and following the Wailuku River and falls for a short way. Then we headed over to the Pu’u O’o crater to check out the latest activity. Unfortunately the lava fountain in the latest fissure eruption stopped suddenly on Thursday afternoon (which might be what caused the large series of earthquakes on Kilauea that night. But we were still able to see the vent steaming, and see where the floor of the crater had dropped that caused the latest eruption. The floor dropped something like 300 feet suddenly last week and sent a huge ash cloud up in the air. Luckily the tradewinds blow most of it out to sea so it doesn’t travel or hover populated areas too much.
After that we viewed recent and old lava flows and two really interesting neighbourhoods. One subdivision was wiped out over a period of 2 years. During that time they tried to divert it using a few different methods but they didn’t have success and over 130 homes were lost. They’ve since rebuilt some of them on top of the lava.
Another subdivision was almost completely destroyed, except for a few stands of trees, a couple sections of road, and one man’s house on a hill. He has a little oasis of about an acre, but no way in or out. He gets all his supplies by helicopter. He also turned his house into a fly-in B&B, but I’m sure it’s pricey. I wonder if the nightly charge includes the helicopter flight?!
From the airport we went to the Pan’aewa Rainforest Zoo. It’s a small zoo, with free admission, but it’s very well done. The animals are well cared for, the signs are up-to-date and most of the enclosures are a very good size. They also have a pretty good mix of birds, it’s definitely their specialty.
Then we travelled down the highway a bit to the Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut factory. Wow what a disappointment! The “tour” is walking by the windows of the factory and watching the employees work. There’s nobody explaining what you see, nobody to answer questions, and tour buses of people jammed around the window. The worst part? The factory is closed on weekends! We just stared through windows at a bunch of idle equipment. There’s a million mac nut farms around, so we’ll find another one to enjoy. Just need to pick one and we can get a real experience!
On the way home we were going to pop into the Lava Tree State Park but it turns out it closes at 5pm. We missed it by thaaaat much.
So, we went back home, fed the fish in the pond and chilled the rest of the night.
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