Four relaxing days at sea. Then we arrived at Hilo, the main town on the “Big Island” of Hawaii.

This volcano, Mauna Kea, is now inactive. Hard to believe from this view it is 14,000 feet, plus more than 20,000 feet to the ocean floor, making it taller than Everest.

We then took our first bus tour …

… and went to Kilauea … a mere 4000 feet, but active today. We went to the top, as close as it’s safe, and had a look in.

The stories, and the exhibits at the National Park office, were just fascinating. What you see here is steam and gas rising from the crater within a crater that has a lake of glowing lava (visible at night) at the bottom. The heat creates it’s own micro-climate – hence the dark grey cloud.

Down the side if this same mountain, lava has been creeping toward the village of Pu’u’O’oo just this year!!

Nearby steam rises from cracks in the ground. And believe it or not there’s a 30 or so room hotel perched right on the crater rim …

We then went to see where lava had flowed (across the road) in 1974.

New plants now struggling for a foothold …

Then a walk through beautiful rainforest …

To a lava tube that you can now walk through …

Then, being a commercial tour, we had to be taken to the largest macadamia farm in Hawaii. Not a great deal to see here, but the coconut and macadamia ice cream was yummy! … and the flowers in little botanic garden nearby were quite special …