Okay, so now we have told you all about our fabulous wedding in Hawaii I can catch up with telling you about the rest of our adventures prior to our stay at the Hilton Waikoloa Village!! We are currently back in Canada and have a little while to get caught up so here goes!!

Once we were in the groove of relaxing it was hard to get out of it! We sat solidly on our laptops for two days before we realised we had been stagnating and busying ourselves with ‘fixing’ the blog! We forced ourselves to snap out of it by taking a drive up the active volcano on our doorstep!
We packed up our bags, hiking shoes, cameras, sun cream, hats, sunglasses, snacks and maps (you would think we could travel light by now!) and set off up the winding wiggle of a road towards the smoke billowing into the sky.
Kilauea is the Worlds most active volcano but is just one of five volcanoes that make up Big Island. Hawaii was nicknamed BIG ISLAND because of it’s 8 major volcanoes and it grows around 42 acres every year thanks to all of mount Kilauea’s eruptions.
We drove to the steam vents and stood over cracks in the floor spewing hot smoke from once molten lava flowing deep within the inner reaches of the Earth. It felt so strange, the steam was so hot, like hotter than a rapidly boiling kettle steam, and it was coming out of a hole in the floor! It made you feel that the volcano is really alive! We went to have a look at the Kilauea caldera, a 2 and 1/2mile wide, 500 foot deep hole which used to be a bubbling pit of lava. There were wisps of smoke coming from the cracks in the hard, black old lava flow. Next we went to the active part of the volcano that was spewing steam in a big cloud about a mile high. A guide told us that if we were to go back at night the smoke has an orange glow from the lava bubbling deep inside the crater! Again it was a strange feeling that Pele (the fire goddess!) could decide our fate for us there and then with a violent eruption of the temper she is known for!
We decided to take a hike through some of the barren landscapes that had been created in past eruptions, aptly named ‘devastation trail’but didn’t bother to change into our walking shoes and set out in flip flops! Near the end of that 1.5 mile easy hike through eerie tree skeletons and scorched earth we bumped into another trail head for the Kipuka Puaulu trail and set off on that. We walked through fields of lava with volcanic glass glittering everywhere in the sunlight and marvelled at the oasis of native flora and fauna that had been spared by Pele. For some reason the red hot flowing lava skirted this mini forest and let it survive! It was like walking through the rainforest and just the odd glimpse through the trees allowed the reminder that we were walking around the crater of the most powerful volcano on the planet at this time! After a good round trip of 4 miles through sharp volcanic glass and rock in flip flops and midday heat we were just about beat but then we drove past the Thurston Lava tube…the coolest place in the volcanoes national park…literally! We walked the path into a lush tropical natural bowl of forest untouched by the lava and filled with native birds, giant tree ferns and those amazing flowers and then straight in front of us was a black hole in the earth. The path lead us in to the dark cool drippy tunnel with an uneven rounded ceiling just high enough to not bump our heads. The lava tubes are formed by lava burning through the rock or earth. In this case, the lava stopped and receded before destroying the forest we had just walked through. You could see the patterns of the lava flow etched in the walls of the tube and it was fascinating. It really cooled us down for our drive home too!

Our adventure the next day was to reach the top of the tallest mountain in the World! And no, we weren’t flying to Nepal to do it! Mauna Kea on Big Island is 33,000 feet tall compared to Mount Everests 29,002 feet…when measured from its oceanic base. So above sea level Mauna Kea is 13,796 feet which is quite high enough for me thank you! Oh, and of course, it is a volcano…though not an active one. It last erupted about 6,000 years ago! We decided that we should aim to arrive at the top in time to watch the sun set and had chosen the night of the full moon to make our journey to (almost) the top of the world!
Again, we pack enough stuff to be out for a week and set off for an adventure. Now, reading the booklets etc they all say, no, sorry, they SHOUT at you in bold capital letters “YOU WILL NEED A 4 WHEEL DRIVE VEHICLE” to drive to the summit. But these rules don’t apply to Alex. He doesn’t need a 4 wheel drive, Peggy made it up Idaho Peak so we will make it again up a mountain in an unsuitable vehicle! (I am hoping this comparison is not going to go on forever!) So I am already dubious about going but we set off anyway at 5pm. The sun sets at 6.30ish and it takes an hour to get there and 40 minutes to drive to the summit IN A 4 WHEEL DRIVE! We are cutting it fine to say the least. I sit in the passenger seat calmly reading the booklet to Alex explaining about the risks and dangers of the drive and the altitude, that we shouldn’t have had coffee or alcohol for 36 hours before the climb (ooops) etc and also that there is no fuel available on the road to the mountain itself. Alex nods and makes appropriate noises and even as I point out the last chance saloon for gas ( I have been away from home too long…gas / petrol) he sails on by. It is not until another 15 minutes into the journey he turns to me and says ” I hope there is somewhere to stop for gas on the way”!!! I want to kill him! The shouting match ensues whilst we turn around and of course it is my fault for not PHYSICALLY making him stop! so half an hour later we are pretty much back where we had set off from and it is dark already. We decide to go anyway as it is a full moon and we are ‘prepared’ to go. (It has been 6 hours since our last coffee!!) So eventually we make it to the visitors centre where, at 9,000 feet, it is recommended you rest here, stretch your legs and give yourself 40 minutes to acclimatise to the altitude as 9,000 feet is usually where altitude sickness will kick in. BUT, the rules don’t apply to Alex and we drove straight past it and onto the sand road without sides, crash barriers and walls that takes the 4 wheel drive vehicles to the summit. Our hire car was actually a roller skate with an engine attached and we had previously joked that it may even just be a driving stimulator as we never got anywhere fast in it! I was hugely doubtful that we would make it and as we violently vibrated up the 17% climb at 6,500 revs I was unsure that we would make it up or down! Alex soldiered on physically willing the car up the terrible road, slipping and sliding in the sand, avoiding the soft shoulders and trying to see as we drove through the clouds for an hour and we finally, with a huge sigh of relief reached the top! We got out of the car, me with my carrier bag as I felt sick whether from the bumpy ride or the altitude I have no idea. It was hard to breath anyway but the view literally took our breath away. We could almost touch the perfectly round bright white torch that was the moon. The clouds hung below us and the spooky silhouettes of the worlds largest telescopes loomed behind us. It was absolutely freezing so we quickly took some pictures (which are rubbish as it was so dark) and got back in the car.

We looked at each other and decided we should head back down. We set off and the highlight of the trip for me was Alex turning to me at a particularly bad bend and saying “so if I pass out or anything just pull the hand break”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He had started to feel dizzy too so we slowly worked our way back down the treacherous track rattling like a box of bolts. There were a few bumps and bangs along the way but we made it back past the visitor centre and onto the main road and stopped at about 7,000 feet to pinch ourselves and remember how to breath. We got out of the car and that was when we smelled the burning. The break pads were glowing red hot, we had lost 2 wheel trims and there was smoke coming out from under the bonnet! Oooops! The roller skate had made it but it wasn’t in amazing shape! We figured out that it was the breaks smoking not the engine so we figured the best thing to do was to drive and let them cool down. We didn’t notice the buckle in the break pads until the next day and kind of denied it even to ourselves!
It had been a once in a lifetime experience (thank goodness!), two of the Worlds most amazing natural forces i as many days and we were worn out! We treat ourselves to a day by the pool to get over it and give our tattered nerves chance to repair the next day!!

Here’s what happened next on our wedding travel adventure!