Day 80 – Kamoamoa II?

Pu’u Huluhulu was finally on the program today – Ranger Rebecca had not wanted to take me with her to one of her “Mauna Ulu to Pu’u Huluhulu (The hairy hill) hike down Chain of Craters road, but today I was apparently convincing enough so that I could come.

It was a beautiful day, scattered clouds, a little wind and pretty warm. There were two parties at the trailhead next to the Mauna Ulu parking lot, but the German couple decided that they could do on their own (or did not really speak English well), so we had a family of three left, really interested people with lots of good questions. Our initially 2.5 hour plan for the hike was easily busted, and we ended up doing roughly 4 hours, including the extension from the 360° view on top of Pu’u Huluhulu to the top of the Mauna Ulu lava shield.

On the way, we got in all sorts of topics, from plate to flake tectonics (how much does our earth change and what was the starting mechanism for plate tectonics as we now know it?), from seismological monitoring of Kilauea volcano to the signature of earthquakes and their distinction to and part of monitoring Nuclear Test Explosions (CTBT), from the 2008 eruption of Halema’uma’u to the “prediction” of the 2011 Kamoamoa fissure eruption last March, and much, much more. It was really an interesting, intense hike.

We had a lot of fun, too. Because it was such a small crowd, we got to walk into the main fissure from the 1969-1974 Mauna Ulu eruption, looking for some red leaves of the Ama’u ferns “hit” by the Pele’s wrath, making acquaintance with the origin of “Nessie” from Loch Ness before actually the hike even had started, leaving the area surrounding the parking lot.

Meeting Nessie in Lava

Inside the fissure

On the way up through the two Kipukas, the “islands” of forest spared by the Lava flow from Mauna Ulu shield, there were heaps of new things to be learnt, including some of the rare and endemic plants that I had not encountered before and that were sort of on my “list” that I’d like to complete before I leave. Of course, there are old, familiar faces in the forest, too!

Ohelo Berries

Kukaenene (Coprosma ernodeoides) Berries

Hedyotis, invasive plant pioneering on lava

Ranger Rebecca explaining Humuhumunukunukuapua'a

After we had traversed the lava field and were finally standing at the base of Pu’u Huluhulu, there was a steep climb waiting for us. But the view was really rewarding – the eruption of Halema’uma’u (unusual from this perspective) on one side and the steam of the Eastern Rift Zone eruption from Pu’u O’o on the other side (actually, this was the first time I actually saw Pu’u O’o!). In addition, there was a lot of steam coming down a hill in front of Pu’u O’o, much closer to Napau. Rebecca didn’t really know, so I tried to convince everyone that we were witnessing the start of the second Kamoamoa fissure eruption, just a year after the first one had ended 😉 Of course, I was wrong and this forest is called the “Steaming Forest” for the heated steam coming out – too bad, I still hope so bad that something will happen before I leave in… already three weeks! In any case, we climbed Mauna Ulu lava shield, peeped down the steep flank of the crater and … had almost our hats flying off in the strong winds here at the summit!