| Robin bought me a helicopter tour of the lava flows for my birthday. The tour left Hilo Airport and flew down to Pu'u O'o Vent, which is the presently active vent that is producing the lava that's flowing into the ocean. We circled the vent several times so everyone could get pictures, then we flew down to where the lava entered the sea in two places. We circled those, then headed up over Royal Gardens to an area just west of Hilo where there were some waterfalls. I must say the waterfalls weren't nearly as exciting as the lava. After that, we returned to Hilo Airport and landed. CLICK IMAGES TO ENLARGE |
| Here's our bird. Seats 6 including the pilot. I got to ride shotgun! |
| That's the Pu'u O'o vent where all the present activity is happening. Kilauea is over the horizon in the far distance. The ocean entry point for the lava is off to the left. |
| Approaching Pu'u O'o Vent. Of the original eruption in 1983: "It started right on cue, fuming and spattering from vents up rift and down before moving into one, shooting molten rock high into the night. The puka (hole) formed neatly on "o" on the map's "Flow of 1965," so we called it Pu'u O. It teased us, intrigued us, enduring beyond reason; it assumed a Hawaiian meaning. Pele the goddess pierced and thrusted, spilling lava into Royal Gardens subdivision. To take on the mana of naming the new cone, we deferred to the elders of Kalapana to make it their own. Their stories grew long - as long as the night. 'Oh-oh, it's getting late - we'd better stop talking and give it a name,' Louis Pau said. Thus it went from O to O,o, the stick for piercing to the one for digging." Pu'u - Any kind of protuberance, from a pimple to a hill; hill, peak, mound, bulge, heap,quantity, mass, clot, knob, heaped. |
| Looking left from the vent you can see the ocean and the steam plumes. |
| There's another helicopter flying below us |
| This is a good overall view of the vent |
| Looking left to the steam clouds. The one we hiked to is on the right |
| This is a view to the left of the leftmost plume. The vegetated patch to the far left middle is Royal Gardens. Beyond that is the road we came in on when we drove the lava field and hiked to Royal Gardens (pages 31-32). |
| Looking back at Pu'u O'o as we fly toward the ocean entry points |
| A look to the west at the entry road (far left) to where we parked the car and walked into the lava field to view the lava flowing into the ocean. |
| These shots are looking straight down at the lava entry. This is the one we saw from the ground on 8/6. (This was fun tipping the helicopter on its side so we could get these shots! As you can see from the picture of the helicopter at the beginning of the page, there's nothing between you and the ground!) If you look really close, you can see the orange glow of the lava. |
| This is a good look at the "bench" where the lava is going in. The bench was formed by that whole area dropping - suddenly - I would guess 40 to 60 feet. That's why they've got the area roped off (the white specks).The pictures I took on 8/6 were from behind that rope. |
| Looking east at the road into the lava field at Kalapana. You can see the end of the road where we parked to walked in to Royal Gardens. In the far distance someplace is our house. |
| This is a good view of Royal Gardens (you have to contend with some reflection from the helicopter's window). I marked the path we hiked on 7/16. Make note of the house at the arrow on the far left. The arrow second to left marks the brown house we visited. The arrow second to the right is the intersection of Orchid and King. The arrow to the far right marks the mango tree we took shade under after our hike across the lava. By the way, our path across the lava was by no means as straight as that! You can see Pu'u O'o in the distance. |
| This is the house marked by the far left arrow in the photo above. It looks occupied! |
| Another view of our path of 7/16. I had to guess where the starting point was. I marked the mango tree (left arrow), the house in the picture at left (bottom arrow), and the brown house we visited (right arrow). |
| Looking over at Pu'u O'o as we head back toward Hilo |
| The town of Hilo. Notice no high-rise buildings. That's probably because the town has been wiped out several times by tsunamis. Notice the breakwater in the bay. The airport is on the right. |
| Hilo Airport |
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Photos 2, page 15
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| September 2, 2006 |
Helicopter flight
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