Back in May, Kathy & I took a trip to Hawaii, this time visiting the Big Island. It was somewhat quieter than Maui, and somewhat less lush & green than Kauai, but there was a lot to see, especially with wildlife and volcanoes. There were several excellent snorkeling spots, including one right next to our hotel, so we could just walk over with mask & fins and take a swim anytime.

As usual, I took tons of pictures (a little over 3,000 I think), and as usual, it's taking me forever to sort through them and post the keepers online. For now, I have a handful of photos (and one video) posted on Flickr, including turtles, eels, molten lava, and a rare Hawaiian Hawk (even thousands of miles from home, there's no escaping the hawk photos).

Besides the wildlife that we caught on camera, we also saw an endangered Nene (Hawaiian Goose) and a Hawaiian Owl, though we didn't get pictures of these (we sped past the Nene on the highway, and the owl flew across the road at night). It's definitely true what they say about Nenes grazing by the side of the road and nearly getting run over all the time.

For our trip, we had the mixed blessing of lots of volcanic activity at Kilauea (the only active volcano in Hawaii). The upside was that we got to see molten lava splashing & steaming at the ocean's edge. The downside was that the fumes were blowing everywhere, shutting down some areas of Hawaii Volcanoes National Park (to avoid exposure to poisonous sulfur dioxide), and also casting a gray haze in the sky for almost the whole week that we were there. Breaks of blue skies were rare, but we definitely enjoyed them when they appeared.

It was definitely worth the trip, and there was plenty to see. But I think our next visit will be to either Oahu or Maui again.

Update (6/14/2008): I also posted a few more of the photos from our previous Hawaii trip in 2005. I'm sure I'll catch up eventually.