Lava Tour

During the afternoon we stop for lunch at a Macadamia farm with its own taste test for all its nuts - and by jove they are hard to crack unless you use the mounted cracker provided ;) Refuelled we move on again to Kalapana where we can finally get to grips with coastal lava landscapes.
After parking the mini-van it is foot slogging across the lava field (there is a red cinder trail across the lava to follow and to stop you getting lost) but you are able to leave the trail and traipse over the lava itself. I take every opportunity to do so and find a spot to plant a coconut tree (the local officials are encouraging people to plant coconuts over the lava to encourage new growth) however, there are already a wide range of pioneer species spread across the barren landscape, sheltered into cracks within the lava. Clearly as the lava cooled it buckled cracked or flowed over itself - looks like molten slag from the surface of solder. Love the chance to walk on this unique landscape with its collapsed lava tubes - found a few as I was walking and wondered where else the tubes might exist… perhaps under where I was walking!! :)
The crunch of the cinder and loose broken rock fractures under my boots as a strode across the landscape was soon accompanied by the sound of the sea crashing against the black rocks and breaking it down into black sand. The beach is small and steep with large rolling waves churning in towards the black cliffs and I stop for a while standing on the cracked and shuddering edge watching the surfing set as they braved the waves 20m out from shore. Standing here in the wind and atop the shaking cliff I see the small black beaches just north of us where the rest of our small group have gathered… I walk across to join them and take the opportunity to take a few photos. Unfortunately my confidence gets the better of me and I stride out onto a small beach surrounded by cliffs for a photo shoot :) … Only to find that although it had been dry for a long time a monster wave choose that moment to come in and I had nowhere to go 0_0* So as the wave crashed towards me my fate was sealed - I looked to find a hand hold on the black rock face but there was none and so the wave crashed against the back of my knees and washed around my lower legs - I could feel the black sand scratching against me… As the wave rolled back sucking at my legs I set my boots and waited… There I stood with boots full of both water and black sand with trousers soaked to the knees and covered also in black sand… Not advisable but great fun :)
Last stop on the tour was another lava flow which had destroyed hundreds of homes just across from Kalapana. This flow was different in that there were no pioneering species and the lava had burnt its way across the road! Barriers were erected to stop people going any further so our last view of the lava was of a black glistening rock fading into the evening gloom.
Overall a great outing worth the money paid but it would have been Awesome if the lava had been flowing with the glow from boiling lava - oh well another time.