Girls on Hot Lava

Ever since we visited Volcanoes National Park in 2003 and were turned away by zealous park rangers worried about noxious fumes, I've been dying to see active lava.

Hot lava. The kind you see on National Geographic specials. Lava that streams down mountainsides burning up trees, buildings, roads and everything else in its path. Liquid lava that burbles and blobs along without consulting anyone about where it's going, or where it will pop up next. Pulled by gravity until it plunges hissing into the sea.


The visitor's center lava videos surely didn't do justice to the real thing. Crestfallen at my lost opportunity, I vowed to return someday.

So when our friend Leeza suggested a trip to the Big Island last week, wanting to see lava, I was thrilled. Here was my chance!

We took an early evening flight to Hilo, and grabbed a couple hours of sleep in the little town of Pahoa, before meeting up with the crew from Lava Ocean Adventures just before dawn the next morning.

I didn't really think much at first about the boat ride to the lava flows. The website showed a flat-bottomed boat with lots of elderly folks in floppy hats, snapping photos. So I was more than a little suspicious as we clambored aboard a powerful catamaran in near total darkness. My suspicion turned to outright alarm when our boat pilot, Shane, abruptly gunned the engines the minute we hit water.

We flew! This is crazy, I thought, as we smashed through ocean swells the size of SUVs. Someone is going to bounce right out of this boat.....

"Hold on!" Shane shouted over the gusty wind and the roar of the engines.

We did. Up front on the sun deck Leeza and I were tossed around like cloth dolls- thrown up and down, our elbows smashed and sides rubbed raw against the gunwales, salt spray lashing our faces, on the wildest thirty minute ride of our lives. It was like riding a bucking bronco down a waterslide. We screamed and squawked and held on tight and somehow stayed aboard.

It was all quite exhilarating until one of the other passengers casually said,"Some of the local surfers spotted a Great White Shark out here yesterday." Gulp.

So intent were we on not falling into the surf that we barely noticed the red glow on the hillside and the huge plume of steam up ahead. Finally, we were going to see lava!



We got so close we could feel the intense heat and smell the acrid fumes coming off the shoreline. The lava stream pulsed and dribbled off the ledge, and huge chunks of fresh lava rock bobbled around us in the waves, cooling as it moved out to sea.

Steam engulfed the boat. It felt like we were floating in a giant bowl of matzoh ball soup.


The live lava was shocking. Watching the glowing red liquid pour off the cliff edge and immediately cool into solid rock right before our very eyes was amazing- almost too much to get our minds around. We sat mesmerized with our mouths hanging open, speechless except for the occasional "wow", which is all I could think to say.

Here a huge piece of rock is breaking off the lava stream:


Lots and lots of steam:



Lava fans: soaked, but none the worse for wear:



He risked a huge fine for getting so close, but I could totally understand this guy's urge to get up close and personal with the lava:


We spent twenty glorious minutes hovering near the lava flow. Then, as the sky began to lighten behind us, Shane turned the boat around and headed back to the launch site, thanking Pele aloud for her marvelous display.

We sailed up one swell and down another, smacking the water so hard I nearly chipped a tooth, until thirty minutes later, we stood on firm ground again.

Still feeling a little queasy from the ride, I asked our boat driver Shane if this was a particularly rough day on the seas. "Rough?!" he said. "The ocean is a bathtub today!". Then seeing my skeptical look he added, "We don't call it Lava Ocean Adventures for nothing. This ain't your grandmother's boat ride." I couldn't argue with him there.

If you're like me and you just can't get enough of this amazing geologic stuff, here's some footage of REAL LIVE LAVA from our amazing adventure on the Big Island:





Leeza writes more about our Big Island adventures in a wonderful post on her family's blog.