Big Island, Hawaii Trip Day 8

Our day started by helping this man with his papayas.  He had a flatbed truck filled with boxes of papayas and one of the straps broke and the boxes and so then papayas went all over the highway.  Hundreds of them everywhere.  Not one person stopped, mostly only slowed enough to drive over the fruit and squash it into the road.  When we stopped there were still the boxes impeding traffic so it must have happened just in front of us.  At one point one lady stopped, not to help mind you, but to tell us to get out of the road.  It was sad to watch, the man was looking at his profit margin probably shrinking to nothing and all people could think about was their drive being slowed by a few minutes.

We found this little island called coconut island.  If we lived a little closer it would be a perfect picnic spot and a place we would probably venture to frequently.  Busy yet peaceful.  We weren't hit by any coconuts but they have a little seed pod that looks like a small pinecone, the size of a grape, that would fall on us.   

Rainbow Falls from the ground this time

Other small falls on PeePee Street

We don't even know the name of this beach but it was the site of our afternoon nap.  It is a place frequented by honu (sea turtles) and surfers.  Matt wanted to make sure his survival skills were tuned so found a coconut he peeled and cracked open.  It was spoiled inside but he did manage to open it - which he said was the most important part.  Out in the ocean were sooooo many sea turtles.  It is hard to get a shot of them as they only come up for a brief moment to grab air and are then back down but it wasn't uncommon to see 5 heads or fins up at a time.  They were mostly smaller ones feeding on the sea weed, although we did see a few larger ones off coast a little more.  

This was a local fisherman casting his nets.

Surfer trying to stay up on the waves

So Sunday morning we found this group that is made of Hawaiian natives that will take you on a tour out to the current lava flows.  It is 4 1/2 mile walk over hardened lava, which is pretty rough terrain.  We booked the trip for tonight.  The experience was indescribable. The land we walked on was once inhabited by people living their way of life.  The lava flow has destroyed everything.  The land, which they still have to pay taxes on, is uninhabitable.  Even if you could build there the lava still threatens.  For now the people that own the land have gotten a group of them together that give tours out to the lava.  They are still in the beginning phases here but are trying to find a new way to live or at least make a living on this once beautiful, tropical but now devastated area.  

The hardened lava here looked like a sheet folded on itself.

Standing on the cliff at lava ocean entry

The heat was incredible

Lava flow on the land

We were about 5-8 feet away.

Some ocean entry shots

This is a short but good video of the sound of lava.  This is slow flowing lava called, Pahoehoe.