Friday, February 13, 2009

February 12 of 12

As usual, the 12th seemed to be here before I knew it. I've been in Hawaii for the past week and a half helping CD get all packed up and ready to move to Arizona. I'm extremely happy he is moving but that also means this will probably be my last 12 of 12 from Hawaii unless we come back to visit. I've been on the Big Island so that's where all these were taken. As always, the credit goes to Chad for the 12 of 12 idea. Head over to his website to see what everyone else was up to today.

8:30 am Hilo, HI : We took a helicopter tour to see some waterfalls and Kilauea Volcano from the air. It was a bit expensive but worth every penny.

9:00 am Pacific Ocean : This is the current spot where the lava flow is hitting the ocean. The different colors in the water is due to the lava heating up the water and turning it to steam.

9:15 am South Rift : The little orange dot in the middle of the picture is lava. The flow has cooled and hardened on the top but underneath the surface is flowing lava which is headed towards the ocean.

9:30 am Hilo Forest : One of the several waterfalls we were able to see from the air. Absolutely gorgeous.

11:30 am Kilauea Volcano : Just down the road from our hotel, you could see the crater with the steam coming out. It amazed me that we stayed overnight for two nights on an active volcano!

12:00 pm Somewhere on the Big Island : After checking into our hotel, we headed out of Hawaii Volcano National Park to a beach. It was really clear and then all of a sudden, we saw this. No, it's not fog or clouds, it's volcanic fumes and gases, and it smelled horrible as we drove through it.

1:00 pm Punaluu Black Sand Beach : One thing we really wanted to see was a black sand beach, so we stopped here. Not really a swimming beach, but still really neat.

1:15 pm Punaluu Black Sand Beach : A green sea turtle sunning himself on the rocks at the beach.

1:45 pm Southern coast : The coast with the black sand beach. I'm going to miss coming here to visit.

5:00 pm Hakuma Point : We drove down to the end of state road 130 and then walked 3/4 of a mile to the viewing spot for the lava flowing into the ocean. This is what we were walking on, hardened lava rock. Kind of rough going but once again, totally worth it.

5:30 pm Hakuma Point : Where the lava meets the ocean. On the left side of the picture, you can see a few water spouts. This is the same thing we saw from the helicopter, but this time from the ground about 1/2 mile away. We couldn't get any closer.

7:00 pm Hakuma Point : Once the sun set, you could see the glowing lava reflecting off the steam coming up from the ocean. Unfortunately, we didn't get too much of a show. No lava was thrown up from the ocean, but it was still amazing to see this sight.

Farewell from the Big Island. Next month I will probably be back in Phoenix taking the same old boring pictures so I hope you enjoyed it.















5 comments:

  1. *sigh* I loved Hawaii. I think we did all that stuff, except for the helicopter ... wish I were there now!!!

    Was nasty turtle lady at Punalu'u? When we stopped there, there was this woman who appointed herself guardian of the turtles: "You're getting too close. Back up. They don't like you. Back away. Grrrr!"

    Nice 12 :D

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  2. You got some awesome photos! I really like the aerial ones, and I love the cupped hands with black snd - great composition and lighting! Now I want to visit Hawai'i, sigh. Probably out of my budget for this year though! Thanks for letting me travel vicariously.

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  3. I am nearly in tears. What beautiful pictures!!! The photo of the honu was amazing. Thank you, thank you for sharing your day with us. I needed to be somewhere warm, even if it it was just for a moment.

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  4. You win!!! Definitely the best day this month. Maybe not the best technical shot, but I sure want to be there. I was there last February, but didn't time it with the 12th. I didn't realize you had a D50. It's a nice camera. I was going to get one as my first camera, but ended up getting a D40. I have upgraded since to a D90.

    Have a great month. see ya March 12th.

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