Category Archives: Volcanoes

Hawaiʻi on Fire

Daybreak reveals the onlookers gathered at the Jaggar Museum viewing point.
Daybreak reveals onlookers gathered at the Jaggar Museum viewing point in April 2016 (Original post here).

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Iconic Places and Spaces.’ See more responses here.

I wasn’t sure what to post for this, but Kilauea is about as iconic as anything on the island, so I thought I’d post some photos from volcanic activity that I’ve seen since I moved here. Captions on the photos with a link to the original post.

Kilauea lava pours into ocean as people watch from the cliff
Lava from the Pu’u O’o vent reaches the ocean in July 2016 (Original Post here).
A lava breakout from the Kilauea lava flow.
A hike to the July 2016 flow revealed surreal scenes like this one (Original post here).
Lava from Kilauea Volcano’s Pu’u O’o vent enters the ocean as if from a firehose.
This fire hose of lava was a short-lived feature of the 2016 flow (original post here).
In April 2018, lava in Halema’uma’u Crater spilled onto the crater floor. (Original post here).

The Numbers Game #6

Lake Waiau near the summit of Mauna Kea.

The idea of The Numbers Game is to enter a number into the search bar and then post a selection of the photos that turn up.

This week’s number is 127. As with last week’s post, three of these photos haven’t run before.

You can see more responses here.

An adult Black-crowned Night Heron in Hawaii
An adult Black-crowned Night Heron.
A pair of Saffron Finches in Hawaii
A pair of Saffron Finches.
A Hawaiian Gregory in the waters off Hawaii
An endemic Hawaiian Gregory.

A window to my world

A view through the windows of Pepeiao Cabin in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park
Looking out through a window at Pepeiao Cabin in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

This week’s Sunday Stills challenge theme is ‘Through a Window.’ See more responses here.

A variety of photos this week, with captions on the photos.

Two Common Waxbills in Hawaii
A pair of Common Waxbills seen through the bathroom window. It’s a good vantage point for watching and photographing birds, so long as I remember to clean it once in a while.
A view through a window at the old Bond Library in Kapaau, Hawaii
Looking through a window into the old Bond Library in Kapaau, currently in the process of renovation.
Rain falling in North Kohala, Hawaii, seen through a vehicle windscreen
Looking out from my old truck on the drive down to Upolu Airport.
A view from the air of Kohala Ranch in Hawaii
A view of Kohala Ranch through a helicopter window. I like how the white fencing stands out.
Windows at a building site in hawaiiA broken window in Hawaii
A look through new windows at a construction project at Hapuna. Sadly, one of the new windows already had something go through it.

Looking back at 2023 – part 2

A Gray Francolin walks on a railing in Hawaii
July: Got anything for me (link)?
A vase of tropical flowers below a photo of a gecko on a bird of paradise flower
August: Still life with snake (link).

Sunday Stills challenge theme this week and last week is ‘Your 2023 Year-in-Review.’ See more responses here. As before, I’m going with a favorite photo from each month of 2023, with a caption and link to the post the photo first appeared in. Last week, I posted favorites from January through June. This week, it’s July through December.

A Whitetip Reef Shark in the waters off Hawaii
September: Mr. Chompers on the move (link).
A decoy duck in the waters off Hawaii
October: Wood you believe it (link)?
A view of Mauna Kea at Sunrise
November: Mauna Kea around sunrise (link).
A child's boot left on a rock in Hawaii
December: The boot’s not on the other foot (link).

Yachts at anchor

Recently, these two yachts were anchored off Mauna Kea Resort. I couldn’t make out the name of the blue boat but the other one is the Anawa, a Dutch built superyacht owned by a Brazilian billionaire. I confess my first thought on seeing this yacht was that it might be the ugliest boat I’d ever seen. Perhaps it was the angle. Perhaps not.

A super yacht at anchor off the Big Island, Hawaii
A super yacht at anchor off the Big Island, Hawaii

Clouds in the Saddle

Clouds in the saddle on the Big Island, Hawaii

The Big Island’s weather is greatly influenced by northeast trade winds blowing up against Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa and dumping generous quantities of rain on the wet east side. Not much of this moisture reaches the much drier west side.

On a recent hiking trip to the saddle between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa, I saw a visual example of what goes on. Cresting a hill, I saw a bank of cloud rolling in from the east. My hike was somewhere under that cloud. When I got closer to that wall of cloud, I could see it fading as it pushed to the west.

My hike started under gray skies, with some light rain, but on this day, the clouds did not keep building. Instead, they burned off somewhat so that it was dry and quite hot by the time I returned to my car, such is the fickle nature of Big Island weather.

Clouds in the saddle on the Big Island, Hawaii