Hawaiian wonders

[Geo]

Just a thread to write down some observations during my time on the islands.

This is my third evening in Hilo now, and first open sunset sky I saw here.

Never seen such a bright blueish sunset sky as far as I can remember.
Back home, there's always some brownish haze at the horizon. Not here, a very electrifying bright blue in the west. Marvelous! Think I even caught a glimpse of one of the volcanoes (west-northwest there's its still cloudy).

[Geo]

Last night, I took a sunset tour for the Mauna Kea. Typically, such tours depart at sealevel either in Hilo or Kona, have an acclimatisation stop at the visitor center at 9200 ft (2800 m), and continue to the top of the volcano. But the road was iced over, thus the rangers closed it for tourist traffic. Luckily there are a couple nice lookout points around the visitor center to enjoy sunset.
And I got half my money back.

Our driver was a-bit-over-half Hawaiian (according to him ), and gave us an introductionary Polynesian tour of the nightsky. The method their navigators used to find their way around at sea in the olden days.

[sisko]

[Unorthodox]

No kidding...

Want to go back there and do some of the volcanoes someday.  We went scuba diving, which pretty much kills your chance at the volcanoes. 

It did teach me I never want to scuba dive again, though.  Holy headache afterword! 

Well, once more, I want to go feed the sharks someday. 

[Geo]

I have to work during vacation?

Some surplus pictures I took with the tablet. These I can with a bit of effort show here.

In order of appearance:
Mauna Kea summit kn the clouds as seen over Hilo Bay.
Mauna Kea (that white "cloud" between the trees) seen from a street near the bubbling potholes.
And as a kicker, I located terrestrial boot camp prior to Unity's departure.

[Geo]

Went from Hilo's warmth to Volcano's vog (by means of convertible no less  ).

The sky was clear over the Kilauea caldera during the day. The rangers at the visitor center seemed to find that pretty remarkable. It gave me the opportunity for a couple nice shots.
Pretty cold here during the night though, and a chilly wind around the clock today.
Stayed close to the visitor center since I had my main backpack to drag along during the day.

In order of appearance:

View over the Kilauea caldera, as seen from about half a mile south of the visitor center on the old rim road.
The Sulphur Banks trail, about a quarter mile from the visitor center.
View of Mauna Loa through the vog released by the Kilauea, roughly half a mile of the visitor center on the same trail.
The Kilauea caldera close to the Jaggar museum on Kilauea overlook.
And to beat it all, Kilauea's nightglow seen from the Jaggar Museum. I had a hybrid Ozzie/North American at the hostel offer people a ride to the caldera after sunset. He got a decent Hawaiian beer out of it afterwards.

[Geo]

Let's see...

Still in Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park.

Walked up to the road closure point at the Keanako'i crater (first attachment) yesterday of the crater rim drive. That's the south side of the Kilauea Caldera.
Nice lookout point for the smoking Halema'uma'u crater (nightglow) as well (2nd and 3th attachments with different zoom levels). The rotten egg smell was noticable.

[Geo]

Is it even possible to attach .mp4 movies? Made a nice one from the center of a small crater today...

[sisko]

.mp4 format is allowed in the media gallery, so you should be able to embed somehow..

[Geo]

Kilauea Iki crater as seen from the center.

http://vid5.photobucket.com/albums/y174/GeoModder/Mobile%20Uploads/20150109_145349_zpsdsspwyht.mp4

Seems to work.

[Geo]

Gettin' rid of the backlog...

Two more shots of the main Kilauea caldera. One as seen from Volcano House, the lodge next to the visitor center, and the other from the tiny part of the caldera floor were hikers are still allowed.

Also, the wind shifted today. Some slight precipitation with a voggy smell was noticable in Volcano Village. But I didn't know until afternoon. Tried to get to Pahoa (the lava-threatened village on Big Island) by bus. Didn't work out, missed the proper spot used as busstop (outside Hilo, there are no busstop markers) in Keaau when switching lines. The Pahoa bus driver decided to drive me by.
Went down to Hilo instead and visited the Tsunami Museum.

O yes. Spotted Alpha Centauri and the Southern Cross a bit above the southern horizon an hour before dawn.

[Unorthodox]

Tablet doesn't like the bright sun, eh? 

Reminds me a lot of the (ancient) volcanos around Flagstaff.  Don't know if I have any of those pics uploaded. 

[Geo]

Tablet doesn't like the bright sun, eh?

Tablet seems to handle the sun relatively well, at least if the pictures earlier in this thread are any indication. The sky was cloudy that day. Also, the wind had shifted and both the Visitor Center and Volcano Village (where my hostel was) sat straight in the path of the vog.

Only one picture from yesterday. I'll try uploading my camera pictures to the tablet later on.
Did part of the Napau trail, in Kilauea's east rift wilderness. East of that section is where the lavaflows that threaten Pahoa originate from. Lots of steaming vents in that zone. The eruptions there date from the 1920ties (some) and the 1970ties (mostly).
I went as far as the Makaopuhi Crater. The attached picture was taken near a collapsed section with lots of steam vents.

[Geo]

I don't know if its the forum, or the wifi of the last 3 hostels I stayed in, but it gets increasingly difficult to post posts with attached pictures. I've tried the whole evening now, and modifications involving an attachment simply don't finish updating.

[Unorthodox]

I've had intermittent problems with the forums the last couple days.  Couldn't post new threads yesterday, and generally slow overall.