We decided to take a little flight around the island. In a plane. It was a plane that they converted into a 9 passenger plane so 'everyone will have a window'. Once again, we got up uber early to be at the airport right after the sun came up.
Butterfly & Princess being silly...
THIS is the small plane... We got a quick 15 minute tutorial on surviving in a very small plane. What to do if we landed over water (that was a probable outcome...) & what to do if we started feeling nauseous...
They had asked how much we weighed when we bought the tickets (oy!) & they use all that data to sit us in the best seat for balance, I guess?! UHM when the pilot said, "Jeremy-you get to be my co-pilot."
I said...out-loud... "Jesus, help us..."
Ready to go! We had headphones on that played soothing, relaxing, make you not wanna barf Hawaiian music. Plus the pilot talked to us through them.
I told the pilot no matter how much he begged , NOT to let him touch the controls...
This is Kona. We left from the airport there. I told you it's black...it's boring...it's covered in lava.
This is Mauna Kea. I promise I'm going to tell you more about this later...but look in the middle of the pic at the top of the volcano. See those white things? Those are observatories. For serious science stuff. We got up close & personal with those observatories... Also-notice the haze in the air? That's vog. It's like our fog, but they call it vog. It has something to do with the volcanoes that makes it happen. I'm not a good listener...
This is lava. From an eruption long ago. He told us the name of it & when it happened, blah, blah, blah but I don't remember...
Be prepared to see a lotta pics of a lotta black lava'ie' kinda things. I mean, really-when else are you ever going to be flying over an active volcano?!
More old streaming lava...
Oh, something different. Here's a little smoke bellowing from the earth. C'mon, that's cool...
Cool hole thing...
This was a deep crater. Can't remember when it happened either...
Different angles to show you how freakin' deep it is!
Ah, this is it. KILAUEA. I was super excited at the prospect of seeing lava. Real live red hot lava. Of course all the brochures show the spewing, fountains of lava & in very tiny print say, "Lava not always guaranteed." Hmph. Since I was SO excited about seeing the lava, I was scared we wouldn't. Then he said, (very non-chalantly),'Oh, there's some lava right there glowing red."
UHM SHUT THE FRONT DOOR!!!!!
See it? And all the smoke coming out?!
Red hot, flowing magma...
from the center of the earth...
just kinda sitting there...
but most importantly making new boring black lava...
The plane tour took us all around the Big Island. Next we were on to Hilo. I told you before that Hilo gets over 100" of rain a year. See how pretty & green it is?!
Check out those cliffs!
Tall stuff, I tell ya...
And we got to see some major waterfalls!
Some of them were 3000' down.
Gulp...
The water is soooo blue & clear.
We even flew over Waikoloa where we stayed. Told ya it was small...
4 comments:
Yeah, I couldn't handle that little plane. At all. Kuddos for you being brave and doing it, because you got to see your real life lava!! Woot. Very neat stuff! Oh, and yeah, getting asked how much you weigh? Super oy!
You could not pay me to get on that plane. That would be a total bummer though cause you got some awesome shots.
Cool lava! The plane that Daniel and I rode on for our anniversary was smaller than that. Yes, I was freaking and sweating to whole time until we landed on the solid ground again! COol shots! :)
I'm just now getting to read all your Hawaii stuff and it is fascinating to me! I want to go there BAD. You got some GORGEOUS pics and I have told you before that I love your story telling!!! I just need to say that if I had to share my weight, I would have knocked the pilot out!! I can't believe you flew on that little plane! Insanity... :/
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