We are in the crater of the Kilauea Volcano

This not where the lava was flowing

In March we ventured back to Hawaii.  We wanted to go early to see if the whales were still around, and they were.  Here is a picture of one of them breaching.  Paul tried to get a shot of the whale upright but the splash from our boat obscured the view, however he did get the whale landing back in the water.  It is quite a sight to see and animal that large flying up into the air.

This year we stayed at the Hilton Ocean Towers which has a wonderful view.  In this picture taken from our room you can actually see the island of Maui in the distance.

Although the Kilauea volcano has stopped emitting lava the area in the crater and around is still warm.  While we were in the crater there was steam all around us and the pungent smell of sulphur.  We did tour several of the locations where lava had previously flowed.  This first picture is of a lava tube which is created by the flowing lava when the surface of the flow cools faster than the lava beneath it.  As you can see some of these tubes are large.

Here are a couple more pictures of lava from many years ago.

Paul did some SCUBA diving while there.  If you looked at our video of Patti skiing at Breckenridge in 2019 I noted I was using my GoPro.  In these pictures I’m using the GoPro underwater, in a water tight case.

This area was called the arches for obvious reasons.