Moku Nui Lava Boat Tour

Summer Vacation 2018 - Hawaii

(created Sun. July 29, 2018; updated Sun. Feb. 17, 2019)

A lava Boat Tour, to see the Kilaeua volacano’s lava flow into the ocean...

Dangerous? Yes

Blessedly safe for us? Yes

Awe-inspiring? Yes

The biggest highlight of our trip

Four olympic pools of lava flowing into the ocean each minute

Lava flowing into the ocean across an area two miles wide

More new island created from the lava in May - July, 2018 than from the flows from 1982-2018

Breathtaking

So colorful, especially before sunrise; words and photos cannot fully capture being there

The Big Island of Hawaii has been created from five volcanos:

1)Kohala
2)Hualalai
3)Mauna Loa
4)Manua Kea
5)Kilauea

source: https://www.hawaii-guide.com/big-island/all-about-big-island-hawaii

Kohala, Hualalai and Mauna Kea are dormant.

Mauna Loa has not erupted since 1984, and has been quiet since then - its longest period of silence in recorded history.

Kilauea, however, is the world’s most active volcano, and has been erupting since early 1983.

source: https://www.lovebigisland.com/hawaii-blog/hawaii-volcano-history/

There are three different kinds of solidified lava, two of which are found on the Big Island:

1.pāhoehoe (pronounced ‘paw hoey hoey’)
and
2.ʻaʻā (pronounced ‘ah ah’).

The surface of aʻā lava is sharp, rough, and ‘clinkery’, while Pāhoehoe lava surfaces have more smooth, billowy, or ropy crust, Pāhoehoe flows typically can change into ʻaʻā flows depending on the speed of the flow and the amount of gas present in the flowing lava, while the opposite (aʻā to pāhoehoe) is much rarer.

source: https://www.lovebigisland.com/quick-and-remarkable-facts-about-hawaii/pahoehoe-and-aa/

On May 3, 2018 Kilauea erupted from new fissures that have destroyed 600+ homes. Some of the outbreaks created fountains of lava up to 300 feet high.

source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_lower_Puna_eruption

The 2018 fissures are still erupting, and these flows have created more new land on the Big Island than all the lava flows since 1983!!!

“Ongoing eruptions in lower Puna have already created more new land than a previous Kilauea eruption that's been active for over three decades.

“Puu Oo, the vent that's erupted much of Kilauea's lava for the past 35 years, added 443 acres of land to the Big Island. That eruption began in 1983.

But in the past 82 days, lava flowing from fissures in Leilani Estates have added at least 760 acres of new land to the Kapoho area.

...“

source: http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/38720943/kilauea-has-created-more-land-in-the-last-82-days-then-it-has-in-the-past-35-years

This YouTube video, from Hawaii247.com, shows a time-lapsed view of the fissures and lava flows:

-https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=11&v=8nOINAT8edI

Hawaii Revealed has a good sight to keep you updated, and they also provide updates to you through their app, too.

https://www.hawaiirevealed.com/hawaii-the-big-island-revealed/volcano-information/

Prior to our trip we investigated seeing the eruption. We didn’t even consider paying for a helicopter tour, and we didn’t... instead we took a lava boat tour with Moku Nui (Big Island) Lava Boat Tours.

AMAZING!

This was by far the most impactful and amazing part of our vacation.

Yvette and the entire crew on the boat are fun, helpful and focused on safety.

They helped us get the right boat ride and got us across the island to the boat dock, and provided a great sea-based tour of the volcano.

The boat sailed at 4am, which meant we needed to arrive by 3:30, which meant bed at 9pm and waking up at 1am. We drove the Saddle Road to get there.

We were some of the first passengers to arrive, but by time we left our boat was filled with ~ 50 passengers and so was the other boat from the other company.

We rode from Hilo Harbor for about an hour to get to the lava flows.

We stayed at the two-mile wide lava flows for about and hour.

And we rode home for about an hour, seeing a rainbow on the way.

Neither words nor photographs nor even videos can do justice to what we saw.

Our photos and videos below, and these posted on Moku Nui’s site - http://mnlavatour.com/gallery/, do give a glimpse of the awesomeness of God’s Creation.

Remember... all of the clouds are steam, not smoke, from the lava evaporating the ocean water.

These images are of lava primarily flowing from Fissure 8, with some from two other fissures; the other 20+ fissures have since opened and closed and are no longer flowing.

Approximately four olympic pools of lava flow into the Pacific Ocean minute as of our visit, creating much new landmass on the island.

Sadly some 600 homes have been destroyed, but thankfully nobody has been killed.

And yes, one week after our lava boat tour, when we were on Kauai, we also heard the news that another lava boat was caught in a lava explosion and that there were injured - lava landed on the other boat that morning and that at least one passenger was injured with a broken femur. We understand that that boat was far too close to the lava, but we don’t know for sure.

We do know that we were allowed within 100 yards / 300 feet (one football field), and the Coast Guard has since pushed these boats back to 1,000 yards / 3,000 feet (over half a mile) - impressive and safer but not as impactful as close as we were allowed to be.

These rides are near a volcano and clearly have risk. We are thankful for the safe our safe passage our prayers are for those who were hurt, that they may recover fully, quickly.

This is a story posted by KHNL, the NBC station in Honolulu:

“Tour boat passenger hurt in lava explosion: It ‘felt like I was being encased in lava’”

http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/38782425/i-felt-like-i-was-being-encased-in-lava-lava-explosion-victim-speaks-out

see also:

“PHOTOS: Multiple people injured after lava explosion hits a Big Island tour boat”

http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/38656124/photos-12-injured-after-lava-explosion-near-tour-boat-off-big-island

At the time of this writing, in early August, 2018, Fissure 8 has at least temporarily slowed its lava flow.

“no significant subsidence has been observed since August 4. However, hazardous conditions remain in both areas.”

source: https://www.hawaii247.com/2018/08/09/volcano-watch-kilauea-activity-update-for-august-9-2018/

One of the boat’s guides was right... he said to make sure we don’t just look at the lava through our lenses and phone screens... make sure to just look and enjoy it, to just be there taking it all in.

(similar to the advise regarding eclipses... they go by too quickly... focus on being part of the event).

We did that AND we captured many photos and some videos.

This is where we saw the lava, to the right of this USGS map, where the red text notes “active ocean entries,” our boat “sailed” in these areas, and the photos below are from here - which is an area that is a couple miles wide.

source:
“Kīlauea's lower East Rift Zone lava flows and fissures map May 16-Aug 9, 2018”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nOINAT8edI

These are the images we captured.

As we cruised through Hilo Harbor, it 4am and the sky was dark.

Once we exited the harbor and turned south, the sky glowed... orange very orange... more orange than you can ever expect from any city lights as you drive to any large city.

And then... we were there.

W O W!

Words cannot describe the beauty that we saw, the rolling colors as the steam filled the air, glowing from the lava.

Stunning.

Remember... all of the clouds are steam, not smoke, from the lava evaporating the ocean water.

And sometimes we heard the underwater sounds of the lava rocks exploding as they encountered the water.

The view just before sunrise... this image shows the waning moon up in the sky, with the sun still below the horizon.

The deckhand pulled in a bucket of water; it was 107-degrees F... like a warm hot tub... safe, but warm, even at our distance.

The lava contains sulfur dioxide, which is released when the lava cools... some of it then collects in the water, which has the opportunity to make some people sick to their stomachs.