Hawaii: Kahaluu Beach & Volcano (Day 5-6)

We spent the 5th day of our vacation worshiping in the morning with the Hawaii congregation. Then in the afternoon, we headed back to the north shore for some last sight-seeing before our afternoon flight to the Big Island. We ended up mostly driving and looking from the car, since time was too short to do much else. We boarded our inter-island flight, grabbed burgers for dinner, and then drove to our next location to sleep.

On the morning of the 6th day, we got to look around and explore the South Kona Coffee resort. We spent the next 4 days of our trip here:

A welcome sign to show us where to park

When we arrived, our cabin had freshly picked apple bananas and a bag of their own coffee waiting for us. Each day we were welcome to pick papayas or macadamia nuts from the trees on the 7-acre estate. As with many parts of the Big Island, right next door to this lush estate was a hill that had been wiped clean by lava flow.

Coffee beans

Fresh macadamia nuts that haven't split open yet

Macadamia nuts after a few days. The hull splits open
to reveal the nut (which needs to be cracked) inside.

Our macadamia nut cracker

Freshly picked apple bananas

To our surprise, the macadamia nuts were ripening, which means they fall off of the tree and hit our roof or the deck with a loud pop in the middle of the night. We got used to it. Staying at the coffee estate was halfway between camping and hotel, because we had electrical power, a grill and burner, and running water but we lacked air conditioning and were on the constant lookout for all sorts of bugs.

A welcome sign on our cabin

Walkway from the cabin to the car

Cooking area, overshadowed by a banana tree with huge leaves

The geckos made a frequent appearance both sunning themselves on the deck and on the upper inside walls of our cabin. The last day we even let one gecko eat from a banana that had split open.

After we picked up some groceries, we headed off to Volcano National Park. The active volcano was the primary reason that we'd chosen to visit the Big Island, instead of others. Here are some of the things we saw while we were there:

A grassy field billowing smoke, which we saw from the car on the way there

An old volcano cavity

A road that was closed due to lava flow in 2003

The oil in the lava made it shine different colors.

Only "recent" lava (10-15 years old) seemed to do this.

Petroglyphs carved into an old lava field by natives

Walking through an old lava tube at night

Our view of the active volcano at night.