Kilauea's Volcanic Eruptions...

This blog starts a series of volcano posts.  I have visited Hawai'i Island a couple times now (ie. the Big Island), and it is my favorite island.  There are five volcanos on Hawai'i Island: Mauna Loa, Mauna Kea, Kilauea, Hualalai, Lohala.  I have backpacked and summited the first three.  My favorite place on the island is Volcanos National Forest, part of the U.S. National Park System.  Volcanos National Forest is primarily composed of Kilauea Volcano.  Kilauea is frequently active, and 90% of its surface is less than 1,000 years old; young in volcano standards.  Presently, it has been erupting continuously since January of 1983.

Kilauea Caldera, situated at the top of the volcano, 4000 feet above sea level, is the most visited place in Volcanos National Park.  It is drive-able with a great visitor center, museum, and has a relatively low altitude (unlike Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea with elevate to approximately 14,000 feet).  Inside Kilauea's caldera is Halema'uma'u Crater.  This basically creates a crater in a crater.  To give you an appreciation of size when looking at the pictures: Kilauea Caldera's diameter ranges between 2 and 3 miles while Halema'uma'u's crater is approximately 3,000 feet (over half a mile) wide.  Halema'uma'u has a lava lake which spits up lava and sends a constant plume of volcanic gas into the air visible 10's of miles away.

Kilauea Caldera's beauty is indescribable.   I've visited 20+ times during my visits to Hawai'i Island, each time with a different experience and perspective.  It changes appearance based on times of day and the widely fluctuating weather conditions.  The best times are at night, but it frequently rains then, causing difficult viewing.  Dawn and dusk can be pretty awesome as well, while day time gives you a true appreciation of the surrounding landscape's size.  There's also plenty of time where the views been completely obscured due to thick fog/clouds/rain/etc...

I have hundreds of pictures of Kilauea; mostly of Halema'uma'u Crater.  I chose a few pictures below to share different view points.  Day, night, dusk, dawn, raining, cloudy, clear, 'voggy' are all represented below.  I'll put the time of day and directional view point in the caption.  Volcanos National Park should be on everyone's must-see list.  Like I said above: it's indescribable so I won't even try since I won't be able to do it justice.  Maybe the pictures below will help, but the word majestic seems to be the most accurate way to describe it.  Not only is it one of my favorite places on my favorite Hawaiian island, but it's probably the most fascinating thing I have ever seen.

Mahalo for visiting and mahalo for reading my above rant regarding the awesomeness of this place.  Enjoy the pictures and let me know what you think.  A hui hou!

Halema'uma'u Crater: mild rain, nighttime, Jagger Museum viewing area (Northwest of crater)

Halema'uma'u Crater: Just after sunrise, Jagger Museum viewing area (Northwest of crater).  The entire area around crater and extending far out of the picture is Kilauea Caldera.

Volcanic gas plume.  Mid-day.  Viewed from 7,000 foot elevation while on the side of Mauna Loa Volcano

Maybe my best photographic moment to date: Halema'uma'u Crater: Very early dawn (long exposure), Jagger Museum viewing area (Northwest of crater)

Halema'uma'u Crater: Late dawn, Jagger Museum viewing area (Northwest of crater)

The walls of Kilauea Caldera can be seen on the far right.  Viewpoint of Halemu'uma'u Crater from the North, 2 miles away.

Foreground is the Southeastern edge of Kilauea Caldera.  Mid day, obviously.

Foreground is the Southeastern edge of Kilauea Caldera.  Mid day, obviously.

Halema'uma'u Crater at nighttime from the Eastern rim of Kilauea Caldera.
It was cloudy but clear below the clouds...wow, those clouds look angry.

Halema'uma'u Crater.  Cloudy at early dusk (long exposure).  Viewpoint from Jagger Museum (Northwest of crater), but unlike pictures from the same vantage point above, the winds are blowing the opposite way this particular day.

Halema'uma'u Crater during a cloudy dusk.  Viewpoint from Jagger Museum (Northwest of crater)

Kilauea and Halema'uma'u in the far distance, viewed from East at the rim of Kilauea Iki (the crater in this picture).  It is cloudy, but the land in the furthest distance in his picture is Mauna Loa Volcano.  It rises up through the clouds on the right side of the photo.

Halema'uma'u Crater.  Cloudy but just after sunrise.  Viewpoint from Jagger Museum (Northwest of crater)

Humpback Whale Watching...

My first whale watching experience didn't produce actual whale sightings.  Apparently, despite being 79,000 lbs, the Humpback whale can still be an effective hider in a game of hide-n-go seek!  That's fine though, we can't expect mother nature to cooperate as we humans hope it will.  My second time on a whale watching trip contained numerous sightings, which more than made up for the first trip.  I was extremely lucky, and we found several whales that seemed more than happy to approach the boat.  One even swam right under me while I was on the boat.  If a whale gets within 100m of the boat then the motor/engine has to be turned off, which we ended up doing several times since the Humpbacks were coming so close.  It was a huge blessing to see these giants up close, but still in their natural habitat.

Out to sea in Hawai'i Kai Bay.  On the hunt for whales.  Where are those gentle giants?

I'll interpose some facts about Humpback whales inbetween pictures.  Here's the first couple:


Humpback Fun Fact 1: Adults are approximately 40-55 feet in length and 78,000 to 80,000 pounds. Adult females are longer and weigh more than adult males.

Humpback Fun Fact 2: Humpback Whales have a very distinct stocky body shape, made further distinct by knobs along their jaw line (called tubercles) and unusually large pectoral fins.

One of my first up close sightings.  It is an adult whale breaching but I am straight ahead of her so that's
the underside of her jaw which is lighter in color (I say 'her' because she had a calf with her).

Humpback Fun Fact 3: Humpbacks are known for their frequent surface activity during mating and birthing.  Sightings are termed: breaching the surface (ie. coming out of the water), pec fin slaps, frequent blows (ie. from the blowhole) and flukes (ie. when they make their tail visible).

Adults can get approximately two-thirds of their body out of the water during a breach, but the adults I saw on this day didn't come close to that.  They seemed more content with just coming above the water line a little bit, but even that was inspiring to witness.  A calf can often get their entire body out of the water, which I did get to see several times (keep scrolling...there's pictures).

Whale breaching. You can see the knobs on around the open jaw.

Humpback Fun Fact 4: A baby Humpback is referred to as a calf.  Calves nurse from their mother for 6 months after birth.

Whale breach.  Jaw open again.  Wow, this whale picture looks photoshopped but it's not. Ha.

Humpback Fun Fact 5: Humpbacks travel approximately 16,000 miles per year as part of their typical migration patterns.

Beginning of a breach.  Side view.  The dark curved line is the mouth, which is closed.

Humpback Fun Fact 6: There are 4 Humpback groups in the world (based on land boarders, which keep them separated from the other groups): Pacific North, Atlantic, Southern Ocean and Indian Ocean groups.  The Humpback Whales in Hawaii are only present during winter and are from the Pacific North Humpback group.

Humpback Fun Fact 7: Gestation is 11.5 months.  Whales from the Pacific North group give birth in the Hawaiian waters during January and February (which makes February and March the prime whale watching times).

When they come down from a breach, they make a large splash.  Often even larger than this.

Humpback Fun Fact 8: Males and females vocalize but males are famous for singing in 10 to 20 minute continuous bursts which have been observed to go on for hours at a time.  The purpose of these long vocalizations is unknown, but is possibly related to mating.  Maybe they just enjoy singing?

Here you can see the mother's dorsal fin (center), calf's dorsal fin (just to the right of the mother), as well as a mist of water still in the air from when the mother blew water from her blowhole (far right).  

While this blog has many pictures of the breaches, most of the sightings were just like the picture above: barely visible dorsal fin under a plume of water from the whale's blowhole.  That's actually the easiest way to first spot them: look out to the horizon for water being blown upward.

Humpback Fun Fact 9: Humpback whales are typically loners.  After nursing, Humback whales rarely stay together, but in instances where they've been observed to stay in a group it only lasts for a short period of time (usually a few hours).

I was lucky enough to observe a very energetic calf, who was more than happy to show off his breaching skills.  This little guy breached out of the water constantly for about 30 minutes.  Reminded me of a 3 year old on a sugar high.

Humpback Fun Fact 10: Humpbacks were almost extinct due to whaling by many countries.  A moratorium on whaling was developed by many contries in 1966, but as of 1988 they were still "endangered."  They were upgraded to "vulnerable" in 1996 after many conservation efforts.  In 2008 they were upgraded further to "least concerned"....whatever that means?  The population is still hampered by illegal hunting, physical pollution, noise pollution, collisions with ships and entanglement in other fishing/ocean equipment.

Several things happening in this picture: 1. you can see the mist from the adult's blowhole (center)  2. You can see the calf breaching out of the water, and about to land on top of the mother  3. The mother is doing a "pec fin slap" which is the large fin extending upward, behind the calf.  
Humpback Fun Fact 11: Experts believe there are approximately 80,000 Humpback Whales living in the various groups around the globe.

Calf mimicking mom: synchronized pec fin slaps.

Humpback Fun Fact 12: They feed on krill and small fish, but only eat in the summertime in the polar waters.  They fast the rest of the year (that's a really long time not to eat!)

Pectoral Fin on the left and half of tail visible on the right.

Humpback Fun Fact 13: Humpbacks have very few natural predators.  Their predators in the wild are mainly humans and Orcas (ie. Killer Whales).  Sharks are a lesser predator and tend to just be opportunistic, feeding on the weak, young, injured or already dead carcasses. 

This whale is upside down and slapping both pectoral fins at the same time
(when swimming the white sides of the pectoral fins face down)

Humpback Fun Fact 14: They migrate to tropical and subtropical waters to mate and give birth.  The waters around Hawai'i are densely populated by Humpbacks in the winter for two reasons: 1. The shallow warm waters, 2. Predator free area (sharks stay in deeper waters and orcas don't migrate here).

One last picture of the calf playing around in the distance.

It was a huge blessing to see these gigantic creatures at play.  Mahalo for visiting and I hope you enjoyed the pictures.

A Hui Hou!   (goodbye until we meet again)

Memorial Day Lantern Floating...

On Memorial Day I went to Hawai'i's annual Lantern Festival.  The website describes the festival in the following way:

 Memorial Day in America is a day when people remember and honor those who have fallen in service to their country. In Hawai‘i, with its diverse population, traditions become easily adopted and assimilated into its rich cultural fabric. It is the norm for people in Hawai‘i, on Memorial Day, to place flowers and offerings on gravesites of loved ones who served their country as well as those of others who have passed away.  With the wish of creating cultural harmony and understanding. 

There were about 50,000 people at the festival and they all gathered for the same reason: to honor those that came before them.  Hawai'i has been the most diverse place I've ever lived in, and for the most part, everyone is very accepting of other cultures/races.  

It's a place where people can be very different, but yet, very much the same.  People here often use race descriptions as purely that: a descriptor.  It's hard to explain, but back on the mainland people seem to avoid these descriptors in order to avoid being offensive or to stay politically correct (whatever that means?).  In Hawai'i, the phrase the white guy over there has the same undertones as if someone said the guy with the blue shoes.  This reminds me of an experience I had with a patient recently.  I said, "Mr. C. you'll have another appointment with Joe, a nice Japanese man such as yourself."  He replied, "oh I'm not Japanese, I'm Korean."  I then proceeded to apologize, but he cut me off and had the most gracious response I've ever heard when he softly said, "Don't worry, no need to apologize.  Never forget that we're all just people...and people are all the same."  Very true Mr. C.  Very true.

Performers about to go on stage for the ceremony.

This lady wins for most beautifully decorated lantern, which she appears to be in remembrance of her father.
The baby also seems to think so.

Several canoes bring bring in hundreds of people's lanterns to kick start the 'floating' process.  This is also helpful since the shores of the beach are very crowded with hundreds, if not thousands, of people all trying to get to the shoreline to float their individual lantern.

The ceremonial stage.

Maybe my favorite picture of this post.  This guy put his lantern in with an aura of remembrance.

Mahalo for visiting.  A hui hou!  (Goodbye until we meet again)