We flew for a few hundred metres up the side of Mauna Loa form the ‘new land’ to hover over the top of the blowholes. As I have explained the Mauna Loa volcano does not have a conventional crater – well it did have in its more explosive early days but today and for many years the magnum (Lava below the surface) has escaped through the conical ‘starlets’ that I have pointed out in the photo.
A little further on brought us to the newest source of lava set amongst lush, regenerating tropical rain forest that characterises this island. The smoke you can see is not volcanic but where molten lava is abutting the trunks of the trees. It is amazing the trees can survive in such heat but they do so because of the 200 inches a year of rainfall in this area.
In the centre of the penultimate photo above you can see a glowing red stream of lava. This looks very small because of the altitude at which we were flying. In reality our pilot estimated that this flow was some 50 feet long by 6 foot wide.
The final photo is one of the waterfalls feeding a new hydroelectric generating station that has been built on the island to harness the huge rainfall draining from the volcanic mountains in the centre of the island and to replace dependency on diesel generated power. More hydroelectric station are planned to provide 30% of the island’s power needs.
My 56 minute flight seemed to last no time at all as we headed back to the airport at Hilo after a fascinating and thrilling view of the molten centre of our earth. As you already know I bought Aviator Bear to celebrate my two maiden helicopter flights and as I write he is perched ready for his starring role in the Adieu Blog to follow.
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