Island Tour - Rainforest & Volcanoes National Park

From the black sand beach we climbed high up onto the windward side of the island where the climate is very different.  Whereas in Waikoloa and Kona on the leeward side of the island the annual rainfall is around 10 inches, on the other side the rainfall is much greater at up to 140 inches per annum.  The higher altitudes away from the coast are cloudy most afternoons and the mountains often shrouded in cloud.

In the Volcanoes National Park, the natural rainforest habitat of huge ferns and mossy trees has been restored by the exclusion of non-native animals which were destroying it.  We walked through part of the rainforest which is high above the now quiet but not completely cool caldera of a  huge volcano - there is a path across it - if you look closely you can see people hiking along it - but also fissures where steam is constantly venting out from the cooling lava deep underground.

We walked through a lava tube, a long tunnel, formed when the volcano had erupted..

From there we travelled a short distance to see some steam vents..

David was unimpressed at having to stand in the sulphurous steam to experience the steam effect.

We travelled on to the Volcano House - a National Parks Service hotel and restaurant - high up in the mountain it had a great view of the visibly active part of the volcano Kilauea with steam and gases rising into the sky from the caldera..

We had dinner at the Volcano House and then moved on, at dusk, to the vantage point of the volcano museum and observatory where the view of the crater was spectacular in the dark sky..

The colour was a reflection, within the steam and gases, of the burning lava within the crater and we were told that we were lucky to be viewing the volcano on a still night when the plume of steam and gas was not dissipating as fast as it might be.