Spring Break! Two weeks to hang with friends and buds. A chance to see and do something new. And that's exactly what eleven students from Leilehua High School Hiking Club did as they planned and went on a trip to the Big Island to visit the volcanoes from March 19th through the 23rd.
 
It was a chance to experience first hand what they learned in school. To see the lava flow at night; to touch the difference between Paho'eho'e and 'A'a lava;  to hear the 'Apapane; to smell the sulfur fumes at Halema'uma'u caldera; to feel the chill mist of Volcano; to hike across a steaming crater. What a difference between reading the written word and touching reality.

We spent five days at the Keakealani Outdoor Education Center in Volcano Village cooking the student-planned meals and sleeping on exercise mats on the floor. There were hot showers, flush toilets and a fire pit for night-time S'more roasting.

Monday, we visited the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park (HVNP) Visitors Center, stomped our feet to shake the seismograph at the Jaggar Museum of Vulcanology, looked down into Halema'uma'u caldera and hiked the Devastation Trail still sterile from the last flow.

Tuesday we hiked down into Kilauea Iki crater barely ahead of 70 Le Jardin 4th graders from Kailua. 

We walked across the frozen lava, like the crust of a cracked chocolate brownie, stared into the throat of the vent that flooded the crater years ago, checked out the steaming cracks along the trail and climbed back up to the rim for our well-earned lunch. We hurried through the Thurston Lava Tube to reach the unlit section where we used our trusty flashlights to explore the walls and roof for roots and insects and drips.

Wednesday was Lava Day. We got a close-up view of the 1974 'A'a flow at Mauna Ulu and some small tree molds. A quick stop at the Pizza Hut outlook (officially known as Kealakomo) and then to the Pu'uloa Petroglyphs walk.

Later we had a picnic dinner of hot dogs and teri-burgers as we waited for dusk to see the red-hot lava flows from the Pu'u O'o vent. It was so far away that we needed binoculars to see it. It was TINY, but it was real molten lava.

Thursday, a chilly, misty day for our holoholo to the Hilo area. We hiked the Akaka Falls loop trail, checked out Rainbow Falls and the Boiling Pots. A quick lunch, then down into a "real" lava tube as we entered Kaumana Cave. Here was a dark, drippy tube full of broken pieces of lava, low ceilings and uneven floors. Flashlights barely lit the way as we carefully stumbled our way inward until the roof threatened to meet the floor and we decided to turn around. What wonderful scenes awaited us just beyond will have to wait until our next visit.

Friday came too soon as we packed and cleaned Keakealani and headed to the airport.

Students: Jason Austria, Kim Beppu, Ashley Kakazu, April Miller, Ashley Moiha, Krysten Piano, Joshua Quinn, Shayleen Siquig, Andrea Spencer, Suzi Swartz, Aye Thu.

Advisors and kokua: Maria Castanada, Bob Keane, Joseph Wisler, Jim Yuen 

For more photos, click here