Ockey Family Adventures: Hawaii Day 6

This is Lanai.

We had to be up and ready to go early because our flight left Oahu around 9:30. We got the house put back together, and then headed across the island to the airport. We made it in plenty of time to catch the plane to the big island of Hawaii.

The boys enjoyed watching the Hawaiian Islands out the plane window on the way to Hilo. Once we were on the ground, had a rental car, and got fed, it was almost noon. We had only about 5 hours to see Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. Luckily, we spotted the nenes right in the town of Hilo.

Hilo is a nice town.

We spotted a nene and a sea turtle right by the restaurant.

Our first stop was the Visitor Center. We got oriented and had the boys start the Junior Ranger booklets. Then we drove down the long road past all the craters. We were able to squeeze in a few hikes along the way.

The first hike was the lava tube. Mom and Dad remembered this one from their visit twelve years ago. The boys thought it was cool to find a tropical underground tunnel, even though it is only a hundred yards long.

Hiking in the rainforest is the best.

The lava tube was a great stop.

Seth loved walking through the tunnel.

It is well lit inside, so you can see where you're going.

This was a fun part of the national park.

Next, we took a trail that we called Eruption Trail. It took us down an old road to an overlook of the Kilauea crater. The crater was much more massive than we expected, and steam vents came up everywhere. Way in the bottom, we could see the leap of orange lava as is spewed out of the mountain. Then we heard a loud chuffing sound. It sounded like a freight train chugging up the mountain. We realized that we could hear the spouting of the mountain volcano, even from this long distance. We were excited, because we weren’t supposed to be able to see any red lava during the day, and we never expected to hear a volcano.

We stopped because we found a lava arch.

We also spotted a few more nenes.

We were excited to see the lava.

The rangers said we wouldn't see it, but we did!

It even splurted a few times. It was awesome!

With that excitement under our belts, we continued south. We stopped at a few overlooks, but we were headed all the way down to the ocean to see the Sea Arch. It required only a short stop, and the drive was through massive lava fields as it dropped four thousand feet from the rim of the caldera. The arch wasn’t too impressive, but we enjoyed the drive and short walk.

On the way back to the Visitor Center, we did one last hike. This one was to petroglyphs that had been carved by ancient Hawaiians. There were some large petroglyphs that were deeply etched and quite impressive. There were also thousands of holes cut in the black rock, each symbolizing an individual Hawaiian’s connection to Mother Earth.

The boys loved seeing how this island is all formed from lava.

This was a pretty look at the ocean and the lava and the sky!

The sea arch is beautiful.

Mom was most excited to see it!

Dax with lots of lava fields behind him.

We found a lot of petroglyphs.

There were some really nice pictures.

This was our favorite.

It was hot walking on the lava, but mom loved the reeds and the black rocks for pictures.

The lava formations were so awesome.

We turned in the Junior Ranger booklets and made the short drive along the north rim of the caldera. The only exciting stop was the hot steam vents that nearly scorched our hands. Then we hurried back down to Hilo to turn in the car. We still had to catch a chain of flights to Honolulu, Phoenix, and all the way back to Salt Lake City.

This overlook wasn't as good. But the boys were so good this trip!

Great sunset!!

The steam vents were a fun stop.

They were hot and smelly.

Once we were in the airport, we found out that the flight had been delayed. The only sad part was we had planned to eat dinner in Honolulu, and now we wouldn't have time. And there wasn't anywhere to eat in the small Hilo airport. The boys were good sports, though, and we bought a few snacks and treats at the small gift shop. Then we read and played games in the comfy couches while we waited for our flight. The boys said Hilo was their favorite airport because it was so small. We made all of our flights, and arrived home the next day around noon.