We're up in time for the early bird breakfast, catching the last order just before nine. Actually, the service in `Dotty's' was poor and the food adequate. Enough to make us move on, back up to the park to finish off -- you'd hope so after more than a week.
We stop at the steaming bluffs this time. The edge of the rim merrily steams for a few hundred yards, easily seen across the caldera. The Jaggar Museam is quite good with some interesting displays including Pele's hair and tears (blown glass threads and droplets [from eruptions]) and a fine sponge-like lattice as well as the usual lumps of rock spewed from volcanoes. They had some seismographs wobbling away behind tourist and schoolkiddie proof glass. Outside they, being next to the volcano observatory, have an excellent view over the caldera. The kids round here are lucky, I don't remember going to see a volcano at school...
We stopped a little way down the cross-caldera walk to a 1982 curtain of fire eruption. A mere half million cubic metres of lava in 19 hours, this one. 
We walked the Devastation Trail, a track through what was left of the forest behind Kilauea Iki when it went up in 1959. One half looks fine, the other side of the path is bare cinders at the back of Puu Puai. We passed a couple of guys with expensive looking still camera and camcorder. One of them then lay face down in the cinders. How odd. An album cover, maybe? We started down to the Byron Ledge Trail which runs between the caldera and Kilauea Iki but the steep cinder path down to the ledge made us decline the opportunity.
Instead we headed over highway 11 towards Moana Loa, taking a wrong turn into the golf course then via some tree moulds -- like lava trees only sunk into the ground. We headed 2000ft further up to the end of the road at 6000ft. Sadly the view was not tremendous today with a deal of haze obliterating most things. Still we discovered some secret equipment. Given the sensitivity of these things [seisometers] us tramping over to them Uh, what are they?
would have sent alarms bells ringing back at HQ. 
Back down to Hilo then to relax for a few minutes before sneaking into a packed Cafe Pesto to eat too much and retire to scribble down our stories. Actually, I think my problem is the ice cream float I thought I'd try. Unimaginatively a scoop of (quite nice) ice cream sat, cream like, in a tall glass of coke, I think. The coke had frothed up around the ice cream and was sickly sweet. The blokey serving it handed me a long spoon and a straw muttering that he didn't want to put it in in case it exploded. Thanks. Not noticing now hungry and thirsty I was I had slurped and scoffed the entire thing before the half loaf of crostini starter (garlic bread) turned up.
Hilo Seaside Hotel, Hilo, Big Island N19.72373 W155.06244 Elev. 40m!
Copyright 2003 Ian Fitchet. All rights reserved.