Day 8 Tuesday 4 November

This morning we watched the ship dock in Hilo on the big island of Hawaii before a leisurely breakfast, a little bit of ship exploring & a little relaxing on our balcony. The crew provided some entertainment for us by conducting a full lifeboat drill below our balcony. All the lifeboats on our side of the ship were lowered into the water, a life raft was inflated & then the lifeboats were all lifted out again (on our first day safety induction they told us that there are more seats on the life boats than passengers, very reassuring that we won’t be another Titanic). It is reassuring to know that they are so serious about safety. We had a midday start for our tour today & had to have lunch before 12 noon (when the restaurants open for lunch) so we ate for the first time at the “Cadillac Diner”, an American “comfort” (or junk) food experience. We don’t plan on going back there again.

Volcanoes National Park was our destination today & we were picked up in a small tour bus driven by Shane for this adventure. Our first stop was the Thurston Lava Tube just past Volcano Village & it was a good thing we took our rain jackets as it was raining lightly plus the lava tube was dripping lots of water. The access to the lava tube was relatively easy, crossing a small bridge then entering a large tunnel that was well lit. There were a few water puddles that had to be avoided & it was an easy slightly uphill walk of about 150 metres. There were a few steps at the end of the tube to get us back up on the track, than it was a short walk back to the start through a nice ferny forested type of area.

Our next stop was at a crater of the Kilauea Volcano that last erupted in 1974 called Kilauea Iki Crater & is still smoking from various cracks in the crater floor. That didn’t seem to deter the people hiking across the floor of the crater. We then drove to the Kilauea Visitor Centre & had a look at the currently active Halema’uma’u Crater in the Kilauea Caldera still billowing large amounts of smoke & volcanic gases from the molten lava at the base of the crater. Luckily the wind was blowing away from us. The Visitor Centre was interesting & displayed some information on the current volcanic activities plus information on the current lava flow threatening the town downhill from the lava flow.

On the way back to Hilo we stopped at some steam vents at the side of the road then walked over to another steaming crater for a closer look. The crater was mostly obscured by steam, as a compensation there were some nice flowers growing alongside the path.

We arrived back at the ship with another plate of treats waiting for us in our cabin, chocolate dipped fruit, delicious. Again we watched the ship depart the port of Hilo before dinner at the Liberty dining room & more guitar playing & singing from Tim Dion.