Hiking Mordor
It was back to the volcano park today, this time to the Kilauea Iki hike, which is a four-mile round trip through Mordor, except without Hobbits.
The devastation was caused by a 1959 eruption at the Kilauea Iki crater, which today has left a lava lake.
It is, in a word, breathtaking. An amazing experience.
It took us a little more than 2 hours to do the hike and stroll over the lava lake, which is the low end of average (and that included pausing to eat our picnic lunch). The toughest part was heading back up the mountain at the end, which was the equivalent of climbing 40 storeys.
Of course, after such a strenuous morning of exercise, we deserved a treat so it was off to the Mauna Loa macadamia nut farm to buy some candy.
The kids also bought some ice cream and my wife and I shared a chocolate covered, macadamia nut sprinkled piece of frozen cheesecake on a stick. It was pretty good, but would have been better not frozen solid.
There were a lot of very tame birds around begging for scraps. We obliged and fed them from our hands. We're such softies.
Tomorrow: Hilo Farmer's Market! And we try to find BJ Penn's gym.
The devastation was caused by a 1959 eruption at the Kilauea Iki crater, which today has left a lava lake.
It is, in a word, breathtaking. An amazing experience.
It took us a little more than 2 hours to do the hike and stroll over the lava lake, which is the low end of average (and that included pausing to eat our picnic lunch). The toughest part was heading back up the mountain at the end, which was the equivalent of climbing 40 storeys.
Of course, after such a strenuous morning of exercise, we deserved a treat so it was off to the Mauna Loa macadamia nut farm to buy some candy.
The kids also bought some ice cream and my wife and I shared a chocolate covered, macadamia nut sprinkled piece of frozen cheesecake on a stick. It was pretty good, but would have been better not frozen solid.
There were a lot of very tame birds around begging for scraps. We obliged and fed them from our hands. We're such softies.
Tomorrow: Hilo Farmer's Market! And we try to find BJ Penn's gym.
Comments