HOOOTT and COOL

[rockjock3]

Well, finally got to go to the big island. Got to see real actual hot, burning, flowing lava. Somebody we met on the way brought an old 4 iron so we actually got to play around with the lava. No, we didn't bring any back. It is nothing like you would think, except for the AHHHHHH, HOT part. Other than that it is about the consistancy of cold syrup. Oh, and did I say HOOOOOOOTT?

I also got over to do the manta dive on the Kona side. Make sure you bring the brightest light you have. The more light you have the more food you attract and the more food you attract the more mantas you attract. They really loved me with my canister light.

Here are some pics of both as well as two manta vids.

 

[Abidon]

Looks like you had an awesome time. I'll be doing the same trip next month. How far from the end of the road did you have to hike to see the "cold syrup" lava?

 

[VBlueV]

hey jay..
great photos!
those mantas look like giants!
how wide would you say they were?

on the flight over.. did you take your can-light as carry-on or check-in?

did you also go to the coast-line where the lava flows into the ocean?

 

[rockjock3]

Let's see here.

--The lava was 6 miles from the furthest you can drive your car and 5.4 miles from where you leave the road and step up onto the lave.

--Mantas we had that night tasted like chicken. No, NO, only kidding.

--The mantas that where there that night ranged from 7-10 feet wingspans.

--Carried my can light in my carry-on. I had the battery out of the light, but in a gallon ziploc with all my charging cables for Ipods, cell-phones, etc. That ziploc I also had in my carry on. The flight there they simply asked me what that (the can light) was and I said a diving light and the battery is right here. On the flight back they said nothing.

--They had a bench collapse (large chunk of land) not too long ago, so there is no beach you can get down too. There is a little sliver, but you would have to climb down 50-60 feet of sheer cliffs to see it. We had all the fun we needed with the lava we saw.

--Note for those wanting to go see the lava. We had taken our Tom-Tom (Auto GPS) with us so that we could find things easily (if you have one then take it because I cannot tell you how much time we saved by simply being able to drive straight to what we wanted to do). We used that on the hike to the lava and it helped great, because the last 2 hours back was in the darkness. I would suggest if you have handheld GPS with trackback capabilities go ahead and take it. The Tom-Tom worked good, but the real "hiking" gps would have worked soooo much better. It is all black lava out there so as soon as the sun goes down good you have no landmarks you can guide off of except not dropping off in the ocean to your left and if you start climbing the mountain on the right. Sounds easy enough, but if you wander to the right towards the mountains it is a couple of miles, soooo you could be waaaaayyyyy off course over 6 miles. You have to twist and turn constantly because of hiking over the lava and you can't just pick a straight line and go. Due to this it could be very easy to get turned around or way off course in the dark even with flashlights. We had the GPS and flashlights and did good. I can't imagine the hike back in the dark if you didn't have both of those.

 

[luvwater]

That is so cool! I am planning on going to the big island next week and plan to do some hiking. Hopefully I get to see some lava also. Where did you park and start hiking?

 

[Teamcasa]

Are your videos are set to private?

 

[Shaka Doug]

Sounds like a pretty wild trip Rock. I'll be sure to remember the GPS advice when I make it over there for that journey. Thanks for posting. Manta's were pretty outrageous too! Hawaii is really awesome isn't it??

By the way, your YouTube vids are listed as private so unaccessible via that link. There's a sweet way to imbed them right into your post. I can show you how if you like. email me or pm if you like. It's pretty easy and people can view your video right here without having to open another browser.

WE LIKE SEE!!

 

[rockjock3]

Are your videos are set to private?

Ooops. Sorry, fixed now.

 

[scottitheduck]

Sweet Vid's Jay...

Do you still need to drive down Chain of Craters road to access the lava or have they opened a viewpoint above? Sounds like a fun trip bro.... good call on the GPS.

G