September 16 - Mauna Loa and Ahalanui

We took the factory tour at the Mauna Loa macadamia nut plant. This is a self-guided tour, which can be done in less than 30 minutes. It was encouraging to see that among the many machines involved in the process of sorting mac nuts and processing them, there are a lot of people involved too. We stood for about 10 minutes and watched the women sort and box the chocolate-covered mac nuts. There is also a nature walk, which was a small garden with native Hawaiian plants and flowers.

After the tour, we went to downtown Hilo and had lunch. We ate at Aloha Luigi, a pizza and Mexican restaurant. My Sicilian slice with salad was good and Rex's burrito was really good. There's a small al fresco dining area, which was fun. We also had shave ice - so much better than a Snow Cone.

Then we went to Ahalanui Park, which is a spring-fed volcanically-heated pool, located at the Pacific Ocean. This is a great place to go to relax and chat with local people. It's a popular place for locals and tourists. Even with a full parking lot, the pool wasn't crowded. For those squeamish about swimming with the fishes, beware. There are small fish that enjoy nipping at you. It's like a free spa treatment. It doesn't hurt but takes getting used to.

We drove to the end of Route 137, which terminates in Kalapana. There are a couple of restaurants at the end of the road. There are also signs indicating that there is no lava viewing from this site. However, lava can be viewed at the end of Route 130. We drove a funky, narrow, unlit road (Kamali Road) to link back to Route 130 from 137. We later learned that there is another, much shorter road that links them, very close to Kalapana. The connection of these 2 routes was more clearly denoted sign-wise going from 130 to 137 versus the other way around. The AAA map we had (10/09-1/11) showed them connecting directly, however due to lava flows, they don't directly connect anymore. Note: AAA's map had very little detail of local roads.

At the end of Route 130 is a parking lot, which is manned by Civil Defense. This area is open to cars from 2:00 to 8:00 p.m. However, you can stay until 10:00 p.m. You can then walk about one-half mile (until the barricade) and see the lava splatter. This is surreal. There are actually viewable sparks that result from lava hitting the ocean. This road used to continue through to Chain of Craters Road and was the other entrance to HVNP until the lava blocked the road in 1986. Amazingly, there are houses built on the lava and you are prohibited from walking on the private roads. Bring a flashlight, as the road isn't lit.