Thursday 12 February 2026
NāhukuWith our ship anchored just off the shore, today’s adventure was bus tour from the port at Kailua-Kona to Hawaii Volcanoes National Park necessitating a tour of much of the Big Island of Hawaii. Our guide, Kelson welcomed us to The Big Island and narrated as we traveled describing the town of Kona as much like Honolulu in the 1980’s. He pointed out Hulihe‘e Royal Palace. As we drove south along the west coast along the Hawaii Belt Road he told us that plough the scenery looked quite green that we were on the dry side of the island which receives only about 11 inches of rain annually unlike Hilo on the east side which gets around 10 feet of rain a year, that the island has multiple climate zones. Our first stop was at a scenic overlook along the Māmalahoa Highway on the slope of the incredible Mauna Loa volcano, the largest vactive volcano on earth. There we looked out over vast lava fields of at least three eruptions. Soon after we enjoyed a refreshment break at Punalu’u Bake Shop, the southernmost bakery in the US, Portuguese-inspired doughnuts called malasadas, before heading to the very windy and very beautiful Punalu’u Black Sand Beach. Wow! Two bucket list items achieved, a visit to a black sand beach in Hawaii and a view of not one, not two, but three Hawaiian green sea turtles on the shore! Soon after we were visiting Volcano House inside the national park and inspecting an impressive piece of volcanic tephra, a lightweight glass debris from the most recent Kīlauea eruption, Episode 41, just 19 days ago. Our next stop was the short hike through the Nāhuku (Thurston) Lava Tube. It was incredible to actually walk through a tube that formed as part of a volcanic eruption approximately five hundred years ago. Finally we arrived at Halema’uma’u Crater Overlook along Crater Rim Drive. It was absolutely amazing to stand there and watch the steam rising from the vent knowing that the next eruption, Episode 42 is expected within the next couple of days, to experience the vog created by water vapor, gases, and volcanic particulate matter. Although it felt like a very fine drizzle, we knew minute particles of tephra were a part of the mist. Soon though it was time to board the bus again for the drive back to Kona by way of Hilo. Everywhere we looked we saw evidence of geologically recent volcanic activity. The island of Hawaii is not only the biggest land mass in the Hawaiian archipelago but the youngest, only about one million years old. Although it was quite a long drive and sometimes we wanted to chant “When will we get there? When will we get there?”, it truly was worth the trip to get a feel for the geology of this young and growing land. Truly we feel privileged to have had the opportunity to visit the home of Pele, the Goddess of Fire, Volcanoes, and Lightning. This incredible experience is one we won’t soon forget!
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