Valley of the Kings, Hawai'i

Lava Dance

Down the Chain of Craters Road in the East Rift Zone of the Hawai'i Volcano National Park lie a series of craters and steam vents which rise out of an expansive lava field laid in the early 1970s. The landscape is stark - with only occasional ferns and scrubby ohia trees breaking through the rock.

Though the Napau Trail is closed beyond the Makaopuhi Crater because of the toxic volcanic fumes, a one day walk is possible by turning south along the Kalapana and Naulu trails to Kealakomo.

An unplanned detour off the main path took me to Mauna Ulu - a bottomless steep sided crater pumping sulphurous steam into the wind.

The path is difficult to navigate despite the wellplaced cairns. Black lava, sharp and unstable, droops down hills in twisted liquid forms. At one point, the remains of a road is visible - reclaimed by the earth as a foot of black lava smothers the tarmac.


When the sun finally burnt through the clouds and the hot blue sky opened overhead, there seemed only one appropriate response.

Hawai'i Volcano National Park

Mathew and I went to Volcano National Park on the Big Island to gawp at lava flows and the sulphur dioxide which is pumping out of Halema'uma'u.


Much of the park is closed because of the toxic fumes, which react with sunlight and cover the Kona coast of the Big Island with toxic 'vog'.

Map Courtesy of National Geographic

Lava, Rocks, Sea, Steam and Sky

If he bites you hard enough

Jay (n)
\ˈjā\

Middle English, from Old French gai.

1. A noisy and vivacious bird (1310).
2. Flashy dresser (1623).
3. Impertinent person who breaks pedestrian rules. Jaywalker (American slang, 1920s).
4. A marijuana cigarette (American slang, 1970s).
5. Australian visual artist (AceJayAce 2008).

Saddle Road, Hawaii

4205 meters of cinder

Before the arrival of European sailors and missionary Christians, who infected the Hawaiian people with syphilis and Christianity, the highest point on Hawaii's Big Island was a very sacred place.

Mauna Kea was not a just a mountain, but the very "belly button" of Hawaii - the first born child of Sky Father and Earth Mother.


Nowadays it's more well known for being the world's highest mountain (measured from its base - the floor of the Pacific) and its exceptionally clear skies.

Geologists peer down through overlapping cinder cones for the ancient crater. Astonomers come from all over the world to see the stars.



I drove to the top of Mauna Kea in a white Ford motor car and ate lunch at the peak from a plastic tupperware pot.

And was blown away.



By the infinite horizon, the thin crisp air and the endless barren volcanic cinder which marks the umbilical scar of the world.