holler at the magma

So I guess my adventure begins at the Hilo airport where Jamal and I were picked up by, to our surprise, two Brits with thick accents. After a quick trip to the grocery store, we made the 30 minute, 4000' elevation gain to the house. Its a two story abode, a 3-person bedroom and living room downstairs and 2-bedrooms, kitchen and living room upstairs. The house has 6 people in in currently: Andy (36 years old) from Britain, previously worked on Mt. Etna in Italy; Anna (22) from Duke, born in SC; Emma (24) from Britian, working on her PhD; Tyler (22) from Vancouver Island and Jamal (22) from Toronto, my partner. We managed to stay awake until 11 pm before crashing.

I woke up at 6 am on Friday and was ready for my first day by our 8 am departure from the house. The Observatory is set up with two main buildings for staff and a lunch room where everyone congregates at noon. Jamal and I did a series of tests for helicopter safety and internet security and I was given the keys to a 2006 Tahoe (nicest car in the whole place) for driving around the park and field work. Frank, our boss, gave us an overview of the work we will be doing there. Because Jamal is Canadian, he cannot drive the Tahoe (who knows), so I am his driver and all of our work will be tied together. We will each have our own individual projects with the other assisting, for safety as well as convenience. Both of the projects are related to working on the top of Mauna Loa, mapping, taking GPS data and trying to not be overwhelmed by the altitude.

Saturday Anna, Jamal, Tyler, Emma and I left early and headed out for a beach/camping trip on the west coast of Hawaii. We stopped in Hilo for Tyler to buy a surfboard and the rest of us to pick up food/tringkets from the farmers market. After that we headed out on a 2 hour drive to the opposite side of the island. Makalawena beach is located about 2 miles from the main road and we were only able to drive 1 mile on the dirt road because of the insane potholes and rocks. After setting up camp right off the beach, we hit the beach to watch the sunset and saw a sea turtle on the walk back. The beach is a common place for people to live semi-permenantly and we walked by a few communities that had erected showers and toilets. Our campfire raged until about 10 pm when Emma spotted a scorpion on her knee and after much girly squealing, we hit the hay.

Sunday, after waking up at 7 am, was spent the day lounging on the beach. It was a rather secluded beach, so no tourists. We saw dolphins following a boat and a whale making a huge splash. At one point I staggered up a hill in to some shade and passed out for 2 hours - this skin is not made for prolonged sun exposure. The first photo is taken from my napping vantage point. For dinner we hit up the Kona Brewery before making another 2 hour drive home. Despite my best efforts with suntan lotion, I managed to burn my left thigh in a weird splotchy pattern.

Monday, a day off, was the most intense day yet. In order to do mapping and work in active lava fields, new volunteers have to take a safety trip with a cleared member of the HVO. Andy was able to combine his work trip with training me, Jamal and Tyler. For safety, we wore pants, long sleeves and gloves incase we fell because the basalt is extremely sharp. Twice we were required to put on our gas masks (sexy) because of the fumes coming from flows. Our excursion was in to the Kilauea lava field that starts at the eruption site and travels down in to the ocean. There are currently three active ocean entry points and we visited two of them. Walking in a lava field requires intense concentration because of the active flows surrounding you plus the 5'-15' elevation change that you undergo. There is no such thing as a flat surface and your boots are getting ripped up and destroyed with every step. At some points we were walking on top of active magma tubes and you could smell your boots melting. All in all we were able to see 6 lava flows up close and personal plus a few instances of lava entering the ocean, creating a massive column of smoke. Our trip included a trip to a GPS station (Andy explaining things with Tyler being photographer in the background), mapping a lava tube using portable GPS, venturing to a variety of lava flows, checking out a few lava entries and then heading back after dark. The hike was at minimum, 12 miles, where I felt like a billy goat with the speed that we were jogging over the lava. The last 3 miles were after sunset and required flashlights to not fall or twist ankles.

The park is filled with other volunteers and we hang out with the bug and plant kids. We are known as the lava kids and our house is the only one with WiFi internet and cable TV. There is a Kilauea Military Camp near that has a little store, bar, bowling alley and small grocery store (for emergencies).

Okay, that is all I got.

ps. we were quoting Austin Power's "liquid hot magma" on the lava flows.