Exploring Puna

South of Hilo and beyond the town of Pahoa we found the Lava Tree State Park. Here, we saw lava trees which had been formed when fast flowing lava (pahoehoe), encountered wet trees. As the flow drains away, it leaves a thick coating around the dying tree. We saw evidence of this at the Park, most of these free-standing tubes are moss covered. We sauntered around the park for a while marvelling at the huge chasms created during the explosive eruption of 1790. We also saw some amazing monkey-pod trees so large they dominated the area. Past Lava Trees, the canopy of trees is absolutely lovely.

Continuing south we made our way to one of the the more unusual locations on the Big Island. Dozens and dozens of spring-fed, brackish pools and tide-pools, some volcanically heated and strewn throughout the area known as the Kapoho Tide-pools.
Great place for snorkelling (although we didn't on this occasion).

Farther down the Highway is Ahalanui - a spring-fed and ocean-fed pool with a manmade wall and an inlet separating it from the ocean. Billed as a "real gem" in our guide book we could not help but be disappointed. The pool and surrounds were tatty and not particularly inviting. We didn't stop for long and decided to continue our trip following the quiet and quite beautiful Puna highway, mostly untouched and exceptionally beautiful.

We arrived at Isaac Hale Beach Park where local fishermen launch their boats. We took the shoreline trail and found, in the vine-covered jungle (but only 40 ft from the ocean!), a small warm water pool, the settting is stunning!

Continuing along the shoreline we could see that this part was covered by a lava flow in 1790.

Finally and at the end of the road we were confronted with the consequences of the current Kilauea eruption. A rolling sea of hardened lava stretched in front of us. This particular flow occurred in 1990 and the sheer size and scale of the lava flow left us speechless.

We walked for 10 minutes or so straight out across the lava and found the new black sand beach. From the beach we could look back and see the top of Pu'u'Oo and the source of all the lava.