We hit the road before 8am so that we could get out on the trail before it got too hot. After a quick stop at the visitors centre to see exactly where it was we were going we started out on the Kilauea Iki trail.
We walked to the bottom of the Kilauea Iki Crater which erupted in 1959 and created the dried lava lake we walked across today. The trail was only 4 miles (6.4kms), so nothing too strenuous, although it was expected to take 2-3 hours. Why? Well because the crater was 440ft down hill. As Newton discovered with gravity what goes up must come down, what Dew and Long discovered was what goes down must come up! How high is 440ft exactly, well think about walking up a 40 storey building and you have got the picture. A blimmen long way in other words.
For $2 you could buy a little booklet which had all the information about the trail, there was 15 markers along the route and at each marker there was a page in the booklet talking all about what happened during the eruption. As Quentin pointed out, just like an audio tour, but in paper form!
Along the way there was lots of interesting flora and fauna, koru fronds just like at home, and this amazing one that was just a stick with the folding front on the top. Quentin touched it thinking it was a sculpture but it was a real life plant,
lots of lovely wild orchids and an amazing number of wild ginger plants. Just like at home the wild ginger is incredibly invasive, in fact I thought it must be an accepted plant there is so much of it around. However on the trail they said it was a pest and they were trying to eradicate it. Good luck with that, as the plants line the highway everywhere, and are all through the forest.
They also have this lovely bird called an apapane which is a beautiful red bird with a really lovely voice. I would show you a picture that we took however every time I see one Quentin isn’t quick enough to look and has yet to see one, other than on the internet! One day he will learn to jump when I say jump, or should that be look.
There is also a lot of Ohia trees which are part of the same family as our pohutukawa, very pretty.
After walking down to the base of the crater floor (which was originally 800ft deep, however the lava flowed, set and raised the level to 440ft) there was a pile of rocks like in this picture, and sitting on them were some flowers and a parcel the size of a basketball wrapped in something like banana or taro leaves. Me being culturally sensitive as I am commented on the offerings that must be left for the gods. Further into our walk the below conversation happened
Me: Wow there certainly are lots of these offering rocks around, strange that only the first one had the flowers and parcel.
He: They are actually trail makers.
Me: Oh that makes much more sense. (duh)
It was a perfect day for the walk, it had rained over night, there was a bit of a breeze and with the early start it was still a little cloudy so we weren’t in the beating hot sun. Mind you we had still walked up a sweet by the time we got back up to the top.
After completing the hike we headed home for a shower and change and headed back to the mall for some more supplies. We really needed more chocolate, clothes and shoes! After such and exhausting few hours at the mall we stopped at Baskin and Robbins (31 flavours of ice cream you know!) for an ice cream. I couldn’t make up my mind so while my husband had boring mint chocolate chip I had this yummy Baseball nut flavour (vanilla flavoured ice cream and cashews with a black raspberry ribbon.) and another one that was vanilla with salted caramel and nuts, very very yummy.
No dinner needed tonight!