Day 9: 11 Night Hawaii Cruise - Hilo

Today we had a 6 hour tour with Scott from Tours by Locals scheduled for just the 4 of us as soon as we could get off the ship. We were docked today so that made it easy once we were cleared. We took snacks and water with us since our tour didn't include lunch.

Scott was waiting for us in the building and we jumped into his 4 door Ford pickup and headed to Volcanoes National Park. We drove through quite a rain squall getting there but it was barely sprinkling when we got to the park.

Our first stop was the Thurston Lava Tube. Scott wanted to get there before the tour buses came so we could be the only ones walking through!

I thought it was going to be scary, but it wasn't - just dampish. There were lights all through the tube but we had to watch for the puddles of water.

After the tube, we made our way up to the Jaggar Museum where we could also look over the Halema'uma'u Crater. There was so much smoke you could barely see the lava and you definitely couldn't get it in a photo.

After waiting to see if the smoke would clear so we could see the lava, and failing, Scott took us to see steam vents that nobody else goes to. It's amazing how hot they get.

Scott then dropped us at Devastation Trail. It's about half a mile long and begins at Pu'u Pua'i Overlook at Kilauea Iki Crater.

This little guy wanted to hang out with us!

After we walked through the trees, we came out to more lava flow where we were able to find some of Pele's tears.

On the way to the ocean, we drove down Chain of Craters Road and stopped a couple of times to walk across more lava fields. The patterns left by the lava are amazing.

And yes, even the 12's show up on lava fields!

The two tone lava is just the difference in temperature of the lava when it's flowing!

Ian, Scott & Jim

 Scott's truck!

In the picture above, we were headed down to the ocean to see Holei Sea Arch. We could also see the steam from the lava flowing into the ocean!

On the way back to the ship, we stopped at Rainbow Falls. There was a lot of water flowing that day!

After we set sail, Captain Trym informed us that about 9:30 it looked like he'd be able to sail us by the lava flowing into the ocean. It was spectacular. We were about 700 yards away when he stopped the ship and let us watch! These pictures were taken by my friend Valerie, as she had a much nicer camera than mine! Pretty awesome, huh?!