Hawaii 4 - Travel & Kīlauea at night

Today was a travel day, going from Maui to Hawaii - "The Big Island".

Woke up at 7, like always, casually packed, and headed out to the airport. All of us big humans had a normal amount of luggage, but Sage has SO MANY BAGS. We took turns playing pack mule. On our way into the airport, we saw some NeNe's! The mystical magical nenes that you are warned not to harass, not to leave your car to look at, and definitely not to hit. They were hanging out in a median, one looking, and one eating grass. You know, doing goose things. Like the stupid geese they are.

Two flights today, Maui-Honolulu and Honolulu-Hilo. Waiting at our gate we were trying to figure out the best seats to see Honolulu from... and after checking the ITAR reports, runways maps, etc etc etc.... Adam just walked over to the pilot and spoke to him in ATC code and confirmed our educated guesses. Leaving Maui was super cool, we looped over the west end of the island - the part we didn't see, and could see the scar that was Lahaina. It was just erased. Like Centralia where only the roads remain, utter devastation.  Depressing, but interesting. And then we flew over Molokai which is much emptier and almost all desert. And after the flight attendants sprinted through the cabin offering water, it was time to land. We came in getting glimpses of Diamondhead (the small and ancient volcano) and Honolulu, before banking and our perfectly researched seat placement gave us great views of Pearl Harbor as we landed. Mothballed carriers, the Missouri and Arizona memorial, and then we came in RIGHT OVER the airbase with military hardware just chilling out for us to gawk at. Well, Dad and I at least.

A quick lunch in the terminal and right back on the same plane with the same crew. We took our same seats in the back left on another half-empty plane, and we took off with excellent views of Diamond head, exactly to plan!  After a few minutes we found ourselves going right back over Maui, this time with views of the eastern half - the half we visited! We saw Paia with our first airbnb, we saw the road to Hana - or at least the peninsula where you buy banana bread, the city of Hana, and the beach where we ate lunch at the very tip of the island, and then we were off over open ocean. They came through with free wine (they were thankful we sat in the back, balancing the half-empty plane). We basically all had our own rows, so when we got to the Big Island, I scooted across the plane to look out the other side. I gave my dad the nod, and he jumped in the seat behind me.  Great views. This island is definitely much much bigger. Rumor has it the land area is more than all the other islands combined (note-to-self factcheck [Big island is 63% of Hawaii's area!]). We saw a number of incredible waterfalls, great bridges, and some baller houses built on cliffs featuring decks a hundred feet over the sea. I love cliffs and waterfalls.... The geography out here is ridiculous, due to the immense rains and I guess quickly-weathering volcanic rock? I would have pictures, but I was busy failing at timelapses... 

The airport is cute, they don't bother with walls for most of it, you can see the baggage claim from the gate, and the rental car office is a booth with a roof.... My shed is more substantial, and it has issues. Anyways, standard airport things, swung by the grocery store, and headed to our airbnb in a town creatively named Volcano. Not a very noteworthy drive, except I thought the car was having trouble maintaining highway speeds.... I eventually realized that was because the entire highway is up-hill, and we gained 3700 feet.

We settled in to our adorable cottage, a 1930s sears-roebuck historical build with stone/wood floors and massive beachhouse vibes. A few of us drove out to the Thai tuk-tuk truck to pick up dinner, and after that sage and her parents hit the sack. They were up late last night listening to the woo-girls do shots in the apartment above us, so they were a bit wiped out.

We were all winding down when my mom checked the crater-cam and saw hotspots. Spots of white on a sea of grey and black, but the webcam said we could see something, so we went for it.  I didn't realize the town was called Volcano because the volcano is RIGHT THERE. Even with a wrong turn, fighting with the defogger and struggling to adjust the GPS to be less blinding.... we were into the park in under 5 minutes. From there was a mile or two to the crater itself. I pulled into the lot with only parking lights on, trying to be polite and save everyone's night vision. Generally, people were super considerate with light-discipline, and the paths came marked with dim amber bulbs so you can navigate in the dark.

So we walked right up to the railing at the lip and we could see the lava glowing in the bottom! Three or four hot-spots, glowing bright orange and puffing out smoke. I took a handful of photos of the crater, and mom decided she'd seen all she needed (there wasn't much to see) and headed back to the car. Understandably so, it's chilly out here tonight. I stayed out a bit longer shooting night shots, long stackable exposures on a hands-free trigger.

Then Dad and I headed 50 yards up the nicely-lighted trail to get away from the lights in the parkinglot and the bozo looking at the crowd with is brand-new super led headlamp. Anyways, shot some milky way pics, admired the new angle on the crater, spotted various smoke-holes, and chatted about how it would look in the day light. Hopefully, that's the first thing we do tomorrow. Nomatter what else we do, it's SO close and SO cool and I'd love to compare and contrast.

A quick drive back to the house, and we checked out the photos. Pretty good, but I should redo it at a lower iso to clean up the noise. But still some of the best star shots I've done. Now, journaling together on the couch, and since I took so long they're now checking maps and guidebooks and plotting out tomorrow! Should be amazing, the volcano is right there and they have a lava tube, and then... who knows. This is my first active(ish) volcano, and I'm super excited to see more of it.