You get up early on Sundays – to go to mass, of course! We, the two volunteer interpreters currently at the bunk house here at Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park, were invited by one of our park rangers, Dino, to join mass at the Volcano New Hope Church. It was a lot of cheering and singing and a long sermon, too. Afterwards there is food and drinks – everyone brings a dish and we were really friendly greeted and hosted by everyone, so it was already after midday when we returned. But not before we had made a stop at the end of a side road of Volcano Village leading to the Pu’u Maka’ala Nature Reserve Area, a part of the Volcanoes National Park that cares for rare endemic plants that are threatened and challenged by invasive species.

Dino is a specialist in botany and invasive species, and really very knowledgeable about the problems and the restoration possibilities of the endemic Hawai’ian plants, and he new about this place where currently the rare endemic, huge Akala is in full fruit: The Hawai’ian raspberry or Rubus hawaiiensis. Right next to it, the almost extinct Oha Way is also blooming, Clermontia lindseyana. This plant has problem fewer than 1000 individuals left and occurs mostly here on the slopes of the volcanoes. It has special adaptations so it will be pollenated by an endemic honeycreeper bird.

I learnt a lot this sunday and really enjoyed the time out in the woods with Dino who showed us variety and species that we will need to be able to identify and tell about if we encounter them during one of our Ranger led activities but that are also really important to know about.

Come to that, we did that all in a little, manual Citroën 2CV that Dino drives every day, although it hardly makes it up the mountain with three men and a heavy back pack seated in it!