~Hosch Adventures~: Hawaii Day 3~Black sand!

This has to have been the most fun day, I swear. I don't know why...Rachel and I had so much pent up stress and this was the day we let it all out. We laughed so hard almost the whole day. I doubt that the things we were laughing at were all that funny, really, but it sure felt good.

Today, we were docked in Hilo. The excursion we chose is "Land of Frozen Fire" because we were going out to a beach created after a lava flow that cooled off, or "froze". We went out to the pier to meet our group and met our guide, a native named Ikaika. If I spelled that wrong I'm really sorry...it's not a common name! Ikaika means "strong" in Hawaiian. We were going to a mineral spring and beach but the person at the excursion desk on the ship had told us you don't really swim or get in the water at all. Rachel asked Ikaika and he said she could get wet, he wouldn't care, so she wanted to go back to the ship and change into her bathing suit and coverup. He said we'd all wait but she couldn't decide. After several minutes of debate she ran back to the ship to change. She was so worried we'd have to wait for her that she rushed and came back without a towel! Ikaika and the group teased her the rest of the day for not being able to make a decision and for getting her suit on but not bringing a towel. I guess you had to be there, but it was funny.

Ikaika is also the name of a warrior helmet and our guide had a huge Ikaika warrior helmet tatooed on his back. He had a lot of tatoos, actually! They are very symbolic down in Hawaii. Most tatoos have to do with geneology and history. I reeeeeeeaally don't like tatoos but when a native Hawaiian has them and tells you their history, it's pretty cool.

He first took us out to a place called Lava Tree State Park. Lava trees look pretty cool. Since there's about 160" of rain a year in Hilo the trees are pretty wet all the time, so when the lava came through it didn't burn the trees immediately. It sort of crawled up the trees and later the tree burned up out of the center of the "lava tree". Since lava contains so many minerals, when regrowth happens it can be pretty lush. Lava goes wherever it wants to go, it will go right through a house, burn up a car, or wipe out an entire town. This state park was created after a lava flow a looooong time ago. Lava also leaves deep holes, tubes, and other interesting features when it cools down. There are trees there called rifle trees(brought in by Captain Cook) because when they break they make a sound like a rifle being shot. What a pretty place!

Our next stop was the mineral springs at Ahalanui. It was incredible! The mineral spring was just off the beach so the background was some palm trees, some plant life, a HUGE pile of black lava rocks, and then the ocean and bright blue skies. Aaaaah! Rachel, who'd run back to get her suit on, just dipped her feet into the mineral springs, no swimming. Ikaika teased her about that, too. We ate lunch here and then moved on (finally!!) to the black sand beach at Kaimu. I haven't been to very many different beaches. They all seem to just have normal color (except for Shell Beach in CA, which has a darker brown, large-grain sand, I have some in a bottle and it's sooo pretty!) but I'd heard about black sand beaches and wanted to see one my whole life. I can't tell you how excited I was. Here I was at a really beautiful, natural wonder, and all I could think about was the black sand beach! The drive over from Ahalanui seemed to take forever!! We passed a shack built on a cliff that overlooked some lava rocks and the ocean and Ikaika said it was worth over $1 million because of its location. I don't know if he was serious? He made cheesey jokes the whole day and they were actually pretty funny, we were so glad he was our guide!

Finally...Kaimu!!! I was SO excited!! We walked for about 10 minutes over the frozen lava flow. Off to the North we could see a smoke plume from where the lava spills out into the ocean. The tour used to get right up close to that area but not anymore and I forget why. In the slideshow you can see a picture of the plume from across the lava flow. The red lava rocks had a lot of iron ore that has rusted. Apparently there is a beach in Hawaii that has sand that color...next time!! We finally got down to the beach where the ocean waves had broken down the lava into fine-grained sand. Words do not do it justice. Pictures do not do it justice. It was GORGEOUS! The black sand had flecks of pyruvite, so there was a lot of shiney gold mixed in with the pure black. Set against the turquoise blue water it was breathtaking!! Someone in our group offered to take a picture of me and Rachel down by the water, so we posed. The girl taking our picture (our new friend Shannon--shout out to Canada to Shannon Reimer!) warned us that sometimes the waves surprise you and she'd gotten the legs of her pants pretty wet...so after the picture I turned around to look at the ocean and the wave seemed to be coming in pretty high. I turned to run (I don't really know why) and kicked a big lava rock REALLY hard and fell down, hitting my knee on another rock. By now the water was on me and as I tried to get back up I fell down again and the water washed over my head! The whole group was watching this go on and were laughing, I guess it looked pretty funny! I stood up and was soaked from head to toe and laughing uncontrollably. I also had black sand stuck to me everywhere! Ikaika had stayed with the van down by the road but heard someone had fallen and met us partway to see if everything was ok. He was really concerned and I was happy about that. {We later learned that some friends we met at Teppanyaki, Barb and Dale, had gone on a bike tour and Barb fell and was pretty seriously hurt. She was asking for medical attention and her tour guide wouldn't help her at all!! So thank you, Ikaika!} My knee stung and my big toe hurt (I kicked it SO hard) but my pride was hurt more than anything. Of course there was more teasing about how we'd waited for Rachel to get her suit on and I was the one who got wet...and more giggling and laughing. Andy, our new friend from Germany, showed us his camera and how he'd taken a picture of me just after I fell into the water and we all laughed about how it's going to show up on YouTube. Ikaika got his cell phone out and wanted to call my husband and ask if he knew how crazy I was. He was also teasing me about messing up his van with water and sand. Seriously, I don't know what got into me that day but I couldn't stop laughing!!

Our next stop (yes...I had to go into public soaking wet) was the Mauna Loa Macademia Nut farm. It was an "extra" stop not scheduled on the tour, but Ikaika said he wanted to take us there because he was having so much fun with us. When we arrived and got out of the van I noticed my pants were mostly dry, except for my lap area. It looked like I'd peed my pants!! More giggling...my big toe was burning a little when I walked so I took my shoe off and took a look. I'd split my toenail from the side to about the center halfway down the quick of my nail. OUCH. It only stung because there was sand getting in it. Our new friend Shannon was so sweet and poured some of her water over my toe to help clean it off. The Macademia Nut farm was a pretty place and it was fun to see where they come from!

Our last stop, again not on the tour but Ikaika liked us, was Rainbow Falls. If the sun is shining, this waterfall is accompanied by a beautiful rainbow, so he wanted to show it to us. As we got out of the van, I heard people saying things like "oh no!" and "are you ok?" I looked out and saw that our new friend from Germany, Marion, had tripped over the parking block and ran her shoulder into the parking sign!! What is with this group, falling all over the place? She was ok and we laughed some more...oh yeah, and the waterfall was pretty too. When we got back to the van, Ikaika was cleaning the van out, I had made a mess with all the sand that was stuck to me...so more giggling.

Ikaika was so great and our group was so fun. We made friends with Marion, Andy, and Gabby from Frankfurt, Germany (I LOVE Germany!!!) and our Canadian friends Shannon and her aunt Justina. There was also an Australian family on our tour who were pretty quiet and looked at us like were from another planet. I don't blame them. We got back to the ship around 2 pm, I think, and decided to all have dinner together that evening. (I'll skip the part about the Department of Agriculture chasing us down at security over the black sand in our water bottles...) We ate at the Cadiallac Diner, a 50s style diner with music videos playing on monitors on the walls, black and white checkered floor, and an actual Cadillac converted into a table.