Breakfast this morning was waffles topped with whipped cream and fresh macademia nuts, syrup too - a good start to the day. As I sat at the table I noticed some big white clouds superimposing themselves on the gray. My imagination? Or was it starting to clear? Believe it or not, the rain stopped. The morning was still gray and wet underfoot, but the sky stopped its weeping. That was one hell of a storm!
We sat and talked for a while over breakfast, and I did remember to ask about the wind farm. It turns out that a new potential owner was looking at it not too long ago - and if the property is sold they will install new windmills. The current farm contains 3-bladed windmills; due to cost considerations the new ones will have only two blades. And apparently because of the decrease in the number of fan blades, the new blades need to be longer which means that the towers will also need to be taller. I'm having a hard time imagining a two-pladed windmill, so seeing the new wind farm (assuming that it is sold and rebuilt, of course) can be a ready-made excuse to come back to Hawaii. Oh, you're right - I don't need an excuse to come back here!
Yesterday's postponed tour of the macademia nut orchard did happen this morning, so I'm even happier that it stopped spitting rain. It was fascinating to learn about the macademia trees. The trees have flowers, immature nuts, and mature nuts all at the same time. When the nuts are ready to be harvested they are supposed to fall to the ground. After wandering among the trees for a while we gathered some ripe nuts from the ground. Back at the house again, we used a super nutcracker to open the macademias. It's amazing how thick the shell is on these nuts, but with the right nutcracker opening them is possible. And as it turns out, raw macademia nuts are really good! (If you want to try some yourself, you can buy both the nuts and the super nutcracker from the Macademia Meadows web site.)
Mac nuts on the ground...
I left Macademia Meadows at 11 - after our tour and some conversations with Charlene, Courtney, and a couple from St. Louis. It was time to head uphill. Or should I say up-mountain? The rim of the crater is at 4200 feet of elevation. I think Na'alehu is between 500 and 1000 feet. From there I drove to sea level, and then back uphill. I covered the 42 miles in much less time than it took me last year on my bike, and since I didn't feel the need to stop for pictures until I entered the park, that helped keep the drive to a reasonable amount of time.
I stopped at the visitor center in the park to get my bearings, and to get some information on hikes. I was looking at a relief map of the park when one of the park rangers pointed outside to the top of Mauna Loa - and it's covered with snow! That amazing storm last night covered the entire state, not just the island of Hawaii, and at high elevations it brought snow. Both Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea are covered in white. Anyone want to go skiing?
It was early afternoon when I headed down Chain of Craters Road. I stopped at a couple of viewpoints, but my first hiking stop was just a couple of miles from the end of the road at the Pu'u Loa Petroglyph Trail. Yes, there really was a marked trail - but without the piles of stones you could easily just wander over the lava. What trail? I actually tried to take a picture of it, should be interested to see if it looks like a trail in the pictures! The prize at the end of the trail was viewing a large number of petroglyphs. There was a boardwalk circling the area to protect the petroglyphs. Apparently it was good luck to bury a portion of a baby's umbilical cord beneath a drawing.
One of many petroglyphs
I headed on to the end of the road for a hike on lava from the April 2003 flow. I actually walked in that area during last year's trip, but visiting again was a good thing to do. That is the jumping off point for hiking to the current active lava flows too, but I won't be headed out there this time. The rangers said it is easily a 4 to 6 hour round-trip hike, and there are no markings to guide you. The easiest time to find your way is around sunrise or sunset when you can see the red glow in the distance - but that doesn't seem like a smart time of day to walk out there. The surface of the lava is nowhere near flat, and it is a difficult surface to walk on even when you can see it. I just can't imagine walking on a black, uneven surface when it is dark outside!
By the time I arrived at the end of the road, the sun was out and the clouds that remained were white. The relatively new (only a year and a half old) lava was pahoehoe and it glistened in the sun. Looking down into some of the cracks I could see red streaks - I assume from the mineral content of the lava. The park service marked a trail over this lava using those yellow tabs that are used on highways. You could wander anywhere in that area, but those little yellow markings were certainly helpful. It's always good to have a clue about the way back!
Hey - are you sure that I can't park here?
I have to admit that I was happy at the end of the day that I had that fossil fuel powered vehicle instead of my bicycle to climb back up those 4000 feet from the sea back to Crater Rim Drive.
I got settled at the Aloha Junction B&B for the night, then headed over to Thai Thai for dinner where I had an excellent Mahi Mahi curry. On last year's trip I managed to eat at Thai That both of my nights in Volcano. I wonder if I'll manage to be attracted to a different type of food tomorrow night or if I'll do another Thai food double.
Here's hoping for reasonable hiking weather tomorrow. I'd like to do a couple of longer hikes, and I've put in an order for a dry day...
Photos for today can be found in my Hawaii Volcanoes National Park photo gallery.
