volcano adventures

ahh the REAL hawaii...the Big Island.
spent a couple of days there last week and it was even more relaxed than oahu. its the newest island in the chain, and has a active volcano with constantly flowing lava. we stayed in this great house that was built on the lava flows from the 80s, right on a cliff near the ocean. when we first walked out to the cliff we saw turtles in the ocean below us.
lava is cool. it makes all these funny patterns it looks like black cookie dough thats just got caught in a solid state. they've closed the roads to the flowing lava so we didnt get to see any of the red stuff, but one day we drove out to a black sand beach and we could see steam on the horizon from where the lava was meeting the sea.
my unlce chris lives out on the big island , and we met his partner nalani, who is an indigenous hawaiian, and whose family have been playing an role in preserving hawaiian culture and language. we went to the volcanoes national park with them and her kids. they were really sweet and during the drive they sang along to the hawaiian radio station in their langauge. as we got higher up towards the volcanoes nalani told us the legend of the goddess pele, a woman from tahiti who became goddess of volcanoes when her sister killed her. as we walked around the crater and the vents nalani told a few stories of people who had insulted pele and had bad luck befall them. inlcuding a friend of hers who had visited the volcanoes and had whinged the whole time about the heat, and when they went ot get back in the car and leave the car woulnt start (she apologised to pele and they continued on their way). anyway we walked around and there were these vents all around the place where steam rose up from under the rocks, and we walked right out to the crater edge. throughout the park there are lava tubes where a stream of lava flows and as it cools the outside becomes solid. when the lava has finished flowing these tube/tunnel/cave things are left empty and we walked through one.

i really enjoyed that little tour it was just amazing, and so nice to spend it with such sweet people as well. nalani was so friendly, and funny too. her and my uncle chris were just taking the piss out of each other the whole time laughing away.