Aloha and Mahalo: February 2

From San Diego, five rough days at sea took us to Hawaii.  First stop, Honolulu, and we had an "event", the first of three planned for this trip.  We were greeted with a lei at the Iolani Palace.  After a short tour, the palace guard performed for us and we were treated to Hawaiian drinks and snacks while we watched a historic show of fashions from the state's rich history.  Who knew that Portuguese from our favorite island of Madeira migrated to Hawaii?  It's amazing about Hawaiians...what we mainlanders don't understand is that many of them are still unhappy about the overthrow of their royalty in the late 1800's, which they blame on us.  And then there was that little incident at Pearl Harbor.

Next stop was Lahaina on Maui.  The Pacific Humpback whales migrate south to Maui each winter to start their families.  We were hoping that the whales were still around this late in January.  They were!  Almost the first thing we saw when we opened our curtains in the morning was a whale spout.  Over the course of the day we saw a lot of whale activity as we drove along the coast to a tropical plantation and the Maui Ocean Center.  Very interesting aquarium.

We were supposed to visit Nawiliwili on Kauai.  While getting dressed, we passed an Oceania (sister company to Regent) ship going the opposite direction and shortly after that, wondered why our ship was listing so much.  The list, we found out, was caused by a great big 180 degree turn and away we went, following Oceania.  The channel into the port is apparently quite narrow, and the sea too rough.  So much for Kauai, and on to the Big Island.

At Hilo, we bravely went off to another volcano, hoping this experience would be more pleasant than the last one.   Hawaii Volcanoes National Park is located on the Kilauea volcano, which is quite alive and active.  Our guide promised us that we'd see an eruption.  How comforting.  She was right, though, and from the Jaggar Museum's porch, we had a view of the Kilauea Caldera and the Halema'uma'u crater which is erupting constantly.

We took a five mile hike that passed through the Thurston Lava Tube and then through rain forest surrounding the Kilauea Iki crater, currently dormant, the last eruption was in 1951.  The trail deposits one at the crater floor,  a "lava lake".  It's one mile across the lava to the other side and then you climb back out via a switchback trail. It was a challenging walk taken in perfect weather and we really enjoyed it.  When we arrived back at the trailhead, we met up with a bunch of our crew members who were on a crew tour to the volcanoes and they were having a grand time.

The lava tube:

The crater:

Inside the crater floor:

Four days at sea will take us to Nuku Hiva in the Marquesas Islands.  Last time we were there, the locals put on a big feast and show, but maybe this ship isn't big enough to get the full treatment.  Bottom line is that there isn't much to see on Nuku Hiva, probably just chickens and coconut retrievers, but we'll see.