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Published: July 21st 2005
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31/05/05: Picture downhill skiing and then 1 hour later basking in the tropical Hawaiian sun. Many people don’t know this but Hawaii gives you the opportunity to do this. Coming from someone that hasn’t even seen snow before, let alone been skiing, I thought that it was best not to indulge in this escapade. Besides, I think snowfall in summer is minimal on the mountain summits.
You can, however, experience natures power on the opposite temperature spectrum and stand next to a river of 1150 deg C molten lava. This can be done all year round but the unusual, although very obvious (if you think about it) characteristic of active volcanoes is that the landscape is always changing. New land is added/destroyed each day which makes it very difficult for tour guides to predict the daily lava flow patterns and dangers.
12 people started the 8km return trek to the molten lava, 3 overweight Americans didn’t make it out of the carpark (the tour brochure stated that the trek was strenuous but perhaps these 3 people thought there would be a Gatorade drink station and Burger King at the destination - either way, they didn’t come along and didn’t
get their $60 back), another American turned back after 200m into the lava climbs and the rest of the group continued without complaint.
We walked along the coast across a formidable landscape for one and half hours. We were basically walking on solidified lava the whole way (ranging from 1 month - 300 years old) - its hard to describe but the landscape looks somewhere in between a scene from the movie Aliens and the surface of a burnt spongecake that has cooled too quickly (See Photo). I loved it...hopping, stretching, hopping, bouncing, hopping. The walk eventually led to a place where the lava flows dramatically into the sea. As you can imagine, the reaction between the two is a little more spectacular than adding water to your mums superheated frypan. Two gases are produced, hydrogen sulphide which is vented from the volcano itself and chlorine which forms from the reaction with the salt water. Both make acids if inhaled so we steered away from these clouds.
We stayed there until just after sunset and as the sky got darker the magma got brighter and brighter. The walk back to the car was fun and I went ahead
with two other young German guys. The two crazy guys, one the size of Shrek, decided that they didn’t need to use a torch to get back but would use their well developed German nocturnal senses. I was impressed but I wasn’t willing to run across volcanic glass lava, some very sharp, without a torch.
01/06/05: The following day we arranged to hire a compact sized car with Martin, Andres (the two German guys) and Andrea (an English girl) to explore the north east side of the island. I was happy to let Martin drive because they drive on the same side of the road in Germany. We followed a 4 mile scenic tour through some wonderful rainforest. I think Martin was suffering withdrawal symptoms from not driving on the Autobahn back home or maybe he was comparing the cars acceleration to his BMWs because he was giving the car some. I pointed out jokingly that scenic routes usually involve meandering around the bends, commonly using the break to point out the scenic views. Sensing some apprehension (I actually wasn’t really that worried), Martin replied:
"Yaaa....Dere is no need to be vorried, ve are good drivers in Germany." I
asked him why and he answered by telling me that it cost $3000 to obtain your license in Germany. I asked why again but we had come to end of the scenic tour after which speeds returned to normal on the highway.
We arrived at the observatory on Mauna Kea early that afternoon. We didn’t haven’t a 4wd so we couldn’t go further up to Hawaii's highest peak (approx. 4100m) so we looked around the observatory, had lunch and shared a bottle of red wine. Wine does funny things to you at that altitude and Andres (if you could imagine Sven, he would be it - see photo) decided to do some suntanning much to the amusement of the Japanese tourists. Since the sky was sapphire blue, the temperature was perfect and there was a refreshing breeze of exceptional air quality (star gazing here is some of the best anywhere in the world because of the air quality, absence of light etc) we all felt compelled to suntan for a while. Truly a bonding experience and it was a shame that it had to end. They dropped me off at the airport where I flew back to Honolulu and then to Dallas, Texas the following day.
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