disappointed to hear that the lava was visible for 23 years and then stopped just before we got there!! Well, we’d just have to settle for seeing it flow into the ocean - I’ll bet you feel well sorry for us!!!

We drove around crater rim drive, a loop road that led around the main Kilauea caldera, and stopped at a couple of the sights, but it was so busy with busloads of tourists that we decided that we’d leave all the main places until Monday, in the hope that it might be quieter. We ended up opting for a hike through Kilauea Iki which means little Kilauea crater. This is a little misleading as it’s not so little really - and in 1959 it was the scene of a huge eruption which started out as waterfalls of molten rock down the sides of the crater, and culminated in a 320m high towering plume of lava which left a mini volcano at one end of the crater. The First part of the hike was along the

rim of the crater, with great views down, and lots of colourful birds and plants. Once down in the crater though, the landscape was really mad - it was like really smooth tarmac, but then there would be lots of broken up bits which looked like a road when it’s been dug up with a pneumatic drill! It was so crazy to think that in recent times this whole area had been liquid rock!! We had a quick look at Thurston lava tube, a walk through an old lava flow more remarkable for what it used to be than what it was now, which resembles a London Underground line!! After finally deciding that we’d had enough of the crowds, we went for a drive up Mauna Loa Road, a twisty, winding mostly one lane road which goes about a third of the way up Mauna Loa, and gave us great views over the craters and out to the Ocean. We stopped on the way back to check out an old lave flow which had gone across the road some years back, and then that was pretty much it for the day. We met up with Paddy and Jill again and decided to