Kilauea Caldera
There is much confusion about the use of the term Hawaii. Hawaii is really just the name of the largest island, sometimes caleld “Big Island” to avoid this confusion. King Kamahameha from Hawaii conquered all the other Islands in 1790 and was able to unify them under a single government.
Tropical North coast
For this reason all the islands became known as the “Hawaiian Islands”, but each Island really has its own unique name. The confusion arises mainly because Oahu, which is the most populous, and has the most number of tourists often itself just gets called Hawaii. It has become common to say I am going to Hawaii, whereas in reality you are really going to the Island of Oahu, and not to the Island of Hawaii. (I only understood this after reading the guide book by the way !).
Snow Mauna Kea !
Hawaii is the active volcanic Island which has regular eruptions and lava flows. The world’s largest mountain is Mauna Loa/Kea which stands some 13,700 ft above sea level, but over 30,000ft from top to bottom above the sea bed. Every 50 years or so it erupts spewing rivers of lava down to the sea and building up the island. 
However you get the feeling looking at the scale of all the Hawaiian Islands that ocassionaly huge eruptions must have occurred on a geological time frame to create these islands. There is an underlying hot spot in the Earth’s mantle where hot molten magma oozes to the surface creating these islands. Continental drift causes the relative position of the hot spot to move relative to the land and currently it is under the big island of Hawaii. the You can sea the black lava fields all over the island. Today a little side vent has been erupting this century on the southern side of the volcano called Kilauea. This is part of the national Volcano park and is a fascinating place to visit. There are also active lava flows lower down which enter the sea with steam explosions, but currently these are not accessible as it is too dangerous.
Kilaurea Ichi
Around 1960 Kilauea Iki (small) erupted pushing fountains of lava into the sky and rearanging the local geography pushing a 200ft hill into place and creating a new caldera. Today you can walk across that caldera which we did and the lava base is still warm. Near this point an amazing 100 meter lava tube can be walked through.
Lava Tube
A lava tube is caused when a lava flow starts solidifying while the internal molten flow continues. As the lava solidifies it leaves a volcanic circular tunnel. It almost looks man made.
We are staying in Kailua-Kona which is a laid back town on the west coast which originally was the capital for King Kamahameha who built a modest but pleasant “palace”. I am trying to come to terms with the great American breakfast. Yesterday I ordered Egg Benedict over Ahi (Tuna – about half a pound steak). It came on top of toasted muffins with fried potatoes and fruit. Anna ordered French Toast with strawberries, cream, syrup, butter and egg and bacon. She opted out of the egg and bacon. There is so much food that I was determined to eat at least the eggs and tuna. Well I succeeded but then was left unable to eat anything else that day until 8pm ! The menu simply doesn’t allow you to have a small breakfast and the restaurant and server really want to impress you with the size of what is on your plate. Eggs seem to be quantized in groups of 3 whether they come as an omellete, or fried, poached or scrambled. The only problem now is that our waistlines are growing visibly each day, so now we have to take drastic action and will now try to source out only coffee shops.
great beach
There are some spectacular beaches on the west coast and they are not too crowded. Today we went to the beach near to the Four Seasons resort which is the most exclusive resort on the Island. The beach has black lava rocks, white coral sand and green trees and palm trees. There are plenty of turtles in the shallow waters just floating around.
Turtles
Further up the coast is a more famous beach since an article appeared claiming it was one of the best beaches in the world – Hapuna Beach – so we had to give it a try. It is lovely but too crowded and the lifeguards were having a hard time dealing with the swimmers. There was a 4-5 foot swell running and a clear rip current at one side of the beach. The red flags were up but everyone of course wanted to surf and swim. While we were there the lifeguard made 3 “rescues” in from the rip current area. In fact rip currents are dangerous if you try to swim against them. In this case the area was narrow so simply swimming sideways brought you out into normal water. Normal water though is where the waves are breaking and there is a psychological opposition to head away from the breaking waves. In fact the breaking waves are safer as they bring you into shore. In fact I don’t think anyone was in real danger although a 12 year old boy was in trouble. To go body boarding in anything over 3 feet surf you definitely need swim fins, because you can’t catch waves on your feet. They didn’t have them.
Switzerland?
Hawaii has at least 3 different climates all on this relatively small island. The trade winds blow from the east bringing moist air to the mountains. As the air rises over the Volcanoes it rains on the eastern side and the highlands. As a result there are rich tropical rainforests and lush vegetation except on the eastern side. On the leeward side of the mountains the weather is hot and dry. Most of the tourist resorts are on the eastern coast thereby guaranteeing hot sunny weather all year round. Driving up inland from the coast you can enter some wonderful green beautiful land which reminded me of Gruyere in Switzerland ! There are 100s of cows and cattle grazing in the huge expanses of grassland with rich rolling hills. There is a similar effect on the other Islands. I remember that both Kuai and Maui have some spectacular tropical rainforest coastlines with dryer leeside beaches.
In an effort to control our waistlines and avoid the massive portions elsewhere, we have eaten at a tiny hidden shack in Kona called the Seiji Brewhouse and Sushi. The owner is Japanese and prepares everything himself. The food is really excellent and good value: very fresh fish, excellent tempura, soba etc. and afterwards you don’t feel guilty and bloated ! Go there. Today we fly back to Oahu for one night.
