This is how bright the the lava rivers are at night. They light up the sky. It looks a bit like a sunset in the east.
FAST FLOWING LAVA STREAMS
Just to recap, the Kilauea erupted from May in a number of fissures. Fissure eight produced fast flowing lava rivers that overran Kapoho, evaporated Green Lake, and destroyed Vacationland and Kapoho Beach Lots. Kapoho Bay was filled by lava and the land extended out into the ocean for about 500m (which is roughly a third of a mile).
HOW FAR CAN YOU SEE THE GLOW?
You can see the glow not only from Pahoa, but also from certain parts of Hilo, which is the biggest town on Big Island, Hawaii. It’s also visible from the top of Mauna Kea, which, at 13,803 feet (4,207m), is the tallest mountain on the island and ca. 45 m (about 70km) away from the nearest lava streams.
ROADBLOCKS
The subdivision Leilani Estates is currently most affected by the fissures. Its eastern part is a no go area and you can be fined get arrested if you are found there. The western part of Leilani can be accessed by residents, only. There are roadblocks set up by the police to ensure that no one else accesses that area. Some parts of Kapoho are cut off by the lava streams and evacuated for that reason.
Something completely different, but this is also part of the Big Island – beaches. The island is not only rock and volcanoes, although it mostly is.
THE THING ABOUT BEACHES ON THE BIG ISLAND
Don’t be surprised, if you find that most of the “beach parks” on the Big Island are not exactly sandy dunes. It’s more rocky bays that might have a lawn or even some steps and railing to make it easier to get into the water – and more importantly out of it. In fact, I would argue Denmark has more sandy beaches than the island of Hawaii. Which is ironic, given its beach and surfer’s paradise image. But each Hawaiian island is different. This island has so many weird and wonderful places. It’s just, sandy beaches is not its strong suit.
EXTRAORDINARY BEACHES
Having said this, Big Island it has extra special beaches to make up for it. So, for example it has some of those very rare green sand beaches and an unusual amount of black sand beaches, which have a haunting beauty. In fact, huge amounts of black sand is produced as we speak, as black sand is produced where lava pours into the ocean and explodes into fine particles. You can actually see that on some of the Youtube videos that are uploaded by people who have been to the ocean entry of the current lava flow.
WHITE SAND IN HAWAII
White sand on the other hand needs time. On the Hawaiian Islands, white sand means ground down mollusk shells and coral skeletons. So, it’s not surprising that you find white sand more in the north west of Big Island. Just to recapitulate, everything north west on the Hawaiian Islands is older than the south east, because of its unique geological nature.
As to be expected, black sand feels firmer and almost crunchy. The white sand on the other hand feels lighter and smother, due to its rounded particles. The downside is, if it contains a high shell content, like the sand at Waikiki beach, it sticks to your skin and is really hard to get off.
MY FAVOURITE BEACHES
So, here are my favorite white sandy beaches on the big island in order of preference: Makalawena, Mohoili and Kua Bay beach (also know as Manini’owali beach).These beaches are situated fairly close to each other, but you will need a car to get there and in the case of Makalawena hike a mile across the lava fields.
There are more of course, A-bay, 69 Beach, Hapuna Beach and down in Kailua Kona, Magic Sands. None of these beaches are very expansive from a European point of view. But they are often less crowded and the warm, tropical water and palm trees make more than up for it.
A huge, old Green Turtle who was a regular at Champagne Pond with Manini fish grazing algae off its back. It loved to rest in the warm waters of the geothermically heated pond. I do not have a waterproof camera, so I can only take shots like this when it comes right up to the shore – and it often did.
On 2 June 2018 a lava flow from the recent Kilauea eruption reached Green Lake Crater. The fresh water lake in the crater evaporated within an hour. The area south of the crater was untouched by the 1958 flow in the west and 1960 flow in the east. It looked like the crater would save the area from any lava flow. It was pretty much gone the same day. Two days later Vacationland and Kapoho Beach Lots were destroyed and with them the the Waiopae tide pools with their coral reefs and the Champagne Pond. Kapoho bay was filled with lava and the shoreline has been extended one mile out into the ocean.
Farms, gardens, vacation homes – everything gone, burned and melted into the lava. Completely destroyed forever. With the neighborhood went the people. Often I don’t know where they are. Sometimes I see photos or read about them in local papers like the Herald Tribune Hawaii or the Honululu Star-Advertiser.
No parties, no potlucks, no jam sessions, no yoga, no fruit stands, no art. I have so many pictures and memories about this place and planned to gradually write about it. Now, my blog is not chronological. I post whatever I find interesting on the day. It does not necessarily reflect, what I do that day or where I am.
I always had the idea that my blog is about places that people can visit. But what about places that ceased to exist? Would anybody want to read about those? Would it upset people to read about them?
If you have got any thoughts about that, please, let me know.
… in 2014, just before Pahoa at the local dump (or transfer station as it’s officially called). This is a reminder that outbreaks in that area are frequent and temporary. The Kilauea has been continuously erupting since 1983.
I’ll take this as an opportunity for me to let everyone know, I’m safe. Only a small part of Big Island is critically affected. At the moment it’s mostly the area around Leilani Estate.
Living on Big Island means, living on top of a massive shield volcano – taller than Mount Everest from the sea floor up. Generally speaking, areas in the southeast are younger and more active than in the northwest. This is because the tectonic plate Hawaii is situated on, slides slowly in northwesterly direction over a volcanic hotspot, producing a chain of islands on the go. As the trade winds blow from the northeast, it’s mostly the regions southwest of the Kilauea that battle volcanic smog and occasionally ash.
It’s also an opportunity to explain, why there are no pictures of active fissures and lava flows on my blog. Apart from the fact that it’s dangerous and illegal to go there, I respect the privacy of people who have lost everything or are still battling for their livelihood.
However, for anyone that’s interested, there are still residents that resisted a mandatory evacuation and post regular updates on on Facebook and Youtube. This is about as close as I will ever get to the fissures, too.
A salt water pool at Kawikohale Point with white coral stones in the foreground, black lava fields in the background and in the distance Pu’uKu’ili, which is an old cinder cone.
