Day 2: Down into the crater

We got up today and have a similarly simple breakfast to yesterday while throwing our stuff into the car to prepare going to our next destination. Before that though, we headed to a certain trail which is apparently very highly recommended:

Kilauea Iki Trail

It’s a 4ish mi. trail that goes around, down, and then across a crater of a volcano that erupted around 1959 and (I think) is now extinct.

The trail starts off with some very Jurassic Park-like fauna, which isn’t that surprising since Jurassic Park was apparently filmed in Hawaii.

Watch your back, velociraptors could be anywhere

This gave me to opportunity to take more pictures of the more interesting fauna in the forest, like the invasive ornamental ginger with the weird flowers:

Ornamental ginger flowers

And this quizzical fern sprout which apparently if you chew on it, it has potent laxative effects (never tried it I have to admit):

Quizzical fern

The trails headed around the crater, but you can still somewhat see a trail across the crater even up high:

Crater trail

On our way down into the crater, I also caught sight of what appear to be wild chickens or something similar? They ran off pretty quickly, but I managed to take this picture:

Wild… chicken?

Suddenly, the trail becomes really steep as you start the descent into the crater proper:

Descent into the crater

During one of these steep steps, I took the opportunity to take a picture of an orchid growing off to the side of a step. To take the shot, I actually had to stretch out like a ballerina while my sister held me back and prevented me from tumbling head-first.

Orchid that I almost died trying to take a picture of

When we actually got down into the crater, it was much, much more desolate. You can see sparse vegetation from the hardy plants that grow on top of the old lava flows:

Down in the crater

(You can also see the Ahu, stacked guide rocks that look kinda like poop in the sign above).

Plants growing in the old lava flow

Some of the small plants growing in the lava flow include the ubiquitous Ohia tree, which apparently is really good at growing in nutrient-poor environments and are usually the first to grow on lava flows. I took the opportunity to take another picture of the Ohia tree flower while down in the crater:

Shoutouts to the macro feature

We walked across the crater, which was really cool, as it meant we were more or less walking across a volcano. The footing was really treacherous, since the ground was really rocky, made up of a bunch of large pieces of lava rock.

On the crater floor

You could also see a bunch of steam vents, apparently from the still-hot lava lake underneath.

Steam vents

If you got really close to one, the steam actually gets scalding hot. It also smells a bit like sulfur, neither of which is actually all that surprising.

We made our way across the crater eventually (the footing was really tough) and then back up through the forest (apparently it’s like climbing up a 40-story building?) to our car. We actually made it back to the lava tubes from yesterday, which was about a mile from where we parked. So, I went with my sister through another trail in order to get to our car and drive it back to get my parents.

Afterwards, we grabbed some lunch at the nearby Volcano Village at the Kilaeea Lodge:

Kilauea Lodge

I finally remembered to take pictures of my food, which of all things, happened to be an antelope burger. (Which also means I get to cross antelope off my animals eaten list):

Antelope burger :9

Random picture of a Birds of Paradise outside the lodge

After lunch, we drove about 2hrs to our next destination, which is the city of Kona on the western side of the Big Island. Here’s a map to give you an idea of our route in orange:

Route Day 2

So I ended up doing the drive, which was really nice. Unfortunately, as I was driving, I couldn’t really take pictures of the drive, but the scenery was amazing, as I drove along the coast most of the time. It really reminded me of driving along Highway 1 in California.

This is also a good time to mention that during this whole trip, my sister and I had flashbacks to our childhood. Our family used to do these kinds of trips all the time when we were kids. We would all pile into the family car and then drive off to some state and visit a bunch of national parks. And now, the two of us are adults with jobs and independent lives and everything (well, at least she does, I’m not so sure my PhD student lifestyle qualifies as a “job”, and she’s younger than me). So now, we’re all together again and visiting national parks and the like. Well, there are some differences, such as the fact that I’m driving the car this time around (at least sometimes). I kind of wonder how else this vacation will differ than the ones our family went on during my childhood. We’ll see, anyway.

Getting into Kona, we pull into our next lodging: the Sheraton at Kona.

Sheraton @ Kona

…it’s… quite different than the cabins we stayed in yesterday and the night before.

To be honest, I don’t think I’ve actually ever stayed at resort hotel like this one. It’s… really nice. Our hotel room has a great view of the surrounding area and the bay:

Da view

There’s also a huge pool with a “superslide”, cabana-style bar, and a bunch of tanning chairs that face the ocean, which is right by the pool.

Inside the hotel

My sister and I went down the slide a few times and then relaxed by the ocean in these tanning chairs. The place is so much like a resort that an attendant came by to ask if we wanted to order drinks, which we did.

After chilling out for most of the afternoon, we headed out to get dinner. The road to the main part of city was completely stopped up on account of people admiring the sunset on the beach:

Sunset @ Da Beech

Traffic @ Da Beech

Instead of joining them, we rushed to this place called “Da Poke Shack”:

Da Poke Shack

This place specializes in fresh poke, which is a Hawaiian dish made up of raw tuna, onions, green onions, and sauce, kinda like a sashimi salad. It’s also freaking delicious:

Freakin’ delicious poke

Man, it was seriously good, I think we’re going to stop by again tomorrow morning before we head to our next destination. At the same time, I really hope we stop by some place with coffee tomorrow morning (it is Kona after all).

Craving seafood, we parked the car in a shopping center and head to a sushi place called Shiono Sushi:

Evening in Kona shopping area

It’s kinda hard to see in the picture, but we’re actually right at the coast:

Like seriously right at the coast

At Shiono Sushi, we ended up ordering a whole bunch of stuff, like this chef special sashimi plate which is some fish that I don’t remember:

chef’s special sashimi

Overall, this was a… somewhat extreme day, walking along a volcano crater in the morning and relaxing by the pool in a resort in the afternoon and then stuffing my face with fish in the evening.