Flowing lava on The Big Island, Hawaii

This was a long awaited holiday, after many stressful months at work and at home: a week in Hawaii. We spent 4 days on The Big Island, and 4 days on Oahu (next post). We found a beautiful guest house in the Southeastern corner of The Big Island (also called Hawaii). As it happened (well, it was sort of planned) it was close to the most amazing active volcano. I had seen volcanos before, in Central America, Indonesia and Italy, among others, but never had I come that close to flowing lava. There is something magical and almost frightening to see the core of the Earth come to the surface and flow so freely. We were absolutely fascinated. After walking on old lava for about an hour and a half, we reached a place where the lava flowed from the top of the mountain. What an incredible sight. The lava is about 1,100 degree Celsius so of course you cannot stand too close for too long. We grabbed a stick and poked the lava – the stick burst into flames and the pressure that came out was incredible. You have to see how blobs of liquid rock form on top of each other to realise the power of the process. A few hundreds metres away the lava flow enters the ocean, releasing massive clouds of hot steam. Fire in water, not something you see every day. This amazing phenomenon creates beautiful black sand beaches. The pictures and video below do not make justice to the intensity of the experience.