Hawaii Day 3

[errantember]

Last night we pre-planned, intending to leave by 9 AM. We made it time-wise, but ended up forgetting the snorkeling gear for 3 of our 7 members. We did extensive back-road disco-driving, bumping up and down at about 7 MPH, through the rain forest. We passed through many areas of lush, crazy vegetation, and found his awesome Honda that had been totally gutted and eaten by the forest. We then proceeded to several snorkeling locations, including a hike out to Champagne Pool over some of the most God-forsaken Hellscape I've ever seen. The trail was sort-of reasonable, but the surrounding area looked like it had been nuked by the Froth Nazis from orbit with an accidental over-ordinance of approximately 50 times the intended kilo-tonage. After hiking through this wonderland of physical annihilation, it was a little bit strange to discover the pool itself was right next to a big housing development. However, once in the water we had a good time seeing a variety of sea life, including angel fish, needle fish, and another turtle. We had two extra pairs of goggles and one extra broken-but-sort-of-fixable mask, so everyone got some underwater time. The missing snorkels were, however, painful. We then proceeded to a local community tide pool area, which, evidently, had some of the best snorkeling we'd encountered on the trip so far. I didn't get to see much of it, because between looking for a snorkel, making one out of my Camel pack bladder, and fixing my frequently-exploding mask, I spent less than 30 minutes actually *in* the water. I was somewhat redeemed by the promise of a return visit later with gear, and the loan of gear in a nearby warm-water estuary where two of our members had previously gone on their honeymoon. Several later project, like seeing the lava flows and seeing Lava Tree State Park were trashed by, ironically, lava. It was evidently eating someone's house, and they were keeping people out to prevent a "spectacle."

One other strange gem was an odd native graveyard with mausoleum-like concrete cairns, including one on the rocks behind the yard that seemed to be...empty. I was uncomfortable treading on what appeared to be sacred ground, and chose not to take any pictures.

Pictures of much of this are being uploaded at a snails pace over the satellite uplink, and will probably be available tomorrow.