I am the god of hell fire, and I bring you....

After two hours of serious hiking Phil and I finally reached our goal. The rocks beneath our feet fizzed with heat. Orange streaks started to appear around us as the sun dipped it's head beneath the horizon. Steam plumes rose into the sky. Ominous cracking and hissing noises came from past the nearest boulder. We rounded the corner and saw the first fingers of Magma glowing from the jet black lava field. The temperature emitted was like putting your head into a potter's blast furnace. Slowly it seeped out of the rock, glowing irradescent against the darkening night. Helicopters were buzzing over head past the next ridge where lots of smoke was rising into the sky. This was the very edge of one of the most active volcanoes on earth.

Hawaii volcanoes national park is located on the south east flank of the big island. It's almost unique in the fact that you can drive completely around an active volcano, Kilauea. The rim of the crater is accesible from a circular road called helpfully, the Crater Rim Drive. Lively exhibits at the Jagger Museum situated half way along the road inform visitors of the history of the area.

In Hawaiian mythology Pele the goddess of the volcano fought bitterly with her older sister, Namakaokahai. The fight ended up forming the Hawaiian Islands. Starting in Kauai they fought all the way down the chain of islands until they reached the Big Island. Pele's fire stick created the volcanoes. She lived on Mauna Loa before Namakaokahai covered the crater with snow to quell her fire. Pele then moved to Kilauea Crater where she is meant to live to this very day. Girls eh?

Further around the Crater Rim Drive is the Thurston lava tube. Walking through lush rainforest you can explore a 500 year old lava tube. For geology fans, Lava tubes are when a tunnel is formed when the surface of a lava flow cools and solidifies while the still-molten interior flows through and drains away. Who says you don't learn anything from this blog? The first part of the tunnel is lit, but the fun section is through a small gate when you are plunged into total darkness as the tunnel carries on toward the ocean. It's not a good time for your head torch to pack up. Yikes!

But we were here to see magma. To access the lava field though you have to follow the Chain of Craters road down some 19 miles and 4000 feet below Kilauea. The road used to link up to the town of Pahoa but a massive lava flow in 1983 cut it off. Instead of highway you have a field of lava rock heading straight into the sea creating new land. The Big Island is still growing and this is place it does it.

At the end of the road are many warnings about how dangerous it is to hike out on the the lava field. These aren't idle threats either. Earlier that morning 14 acres of lava shelf had broken off and crashed into the ocean. The area was highly unstable. While hiking fissures and sharp lava rocks are waiting to catch you off guard to trip you up and cut your legs, hands and feet. Phil and I packed our backpacks with lots of water and torches and headed off.


The landscape is near to lunar as is possible on earth. If diving at night is the closest senasation to weightlessness without blasting off into the straosphere, hiking on a lava flow must be the equivelent of walking on the moon. Neil Armstrong might have bounced about but did he ever hike 4 1/2 miles on the newest land on the planet? I think not!. The rocks were jet black and alternated between smooth 'Aa Aa' lava and jagged Pahoehoe. All this meant we had a hard hike ahead of us. But we pressed on heading to see the lava flow from the Pu'u 'O'o vent. It is the most active on Kilauea and when the sun went down we saw why.

Heading back in the dark was also a great challenge. With no natural light apart from the glow of the magma we had to use torches to try and find our way back to safety. Beacons had guided the first part of our journey out, but had abruptly stopped a good two miles from the start of the magma. Trying to find our way back to the beacons in complete darkness was a heady experience. The rule became, don't tread on anything which isn't completely black, as the lighter rock was actually large holes 6 feet deep ready to swallow you up.

At one stage I shouted to Phil " What's that noise?"
He replied " Mike, I think that's the ocean!"
We had been disorientated by the gloom and had ended up only 50 feet from the edge of the lava shelf. The most dangerous point, in an already very dangerous place. We turned around and headed inland sharpish. Finally got back to the road long after dark to see more people just heading out. It was 9:30pm the hike takes a good 5 hour. They were completely mad!

The next day the front page of the local paper ran this story. So that's why the helicopters were buzzing overhead. Eek!