The day started with my morning coffee on deck 7 watching as the big island of Hawaii came into view. All in all, a pretty great way to start the day. As we filed through customs, I also got a rather enthusiastic high five from the Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who is sailing with us to South Africa. Upon disembarking, my dear friend Katie Curtiss from my second year in NCCC met me at the port in a much coveted rental car and we set off on our grand adventure in Hilo.
I find Hawaii to be a remarkable place. American, but
with a distinct flavor all its own. I feel very fortunate that Katie, who has
been living and working in Oahu for the past several months, knows just about
everything there is to know about Hawaiian culture and customs, despite her
status as a native Texan. Our first stop was Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park. We
had this grand idea that we’d see lava overflowing. We found that there were
two things wrong with that assumption: 1. They’re not dumb enough to let tourists
get close enough to anything that could literally melt their faces off. 2. It
was super foggy and rainy so there wasn’t much to see anyway. It was cool to
climb over mountains of lava rocks throughout some of the area damaged by lava
flow not too long ago. Fun fact: it’s illegal to take lava rocks from the park
or even from the island itself. In Hawaii, everything has a spirit and by
stealing the lava rock, you then steal the spirit which can then result in some
pretty bad juju. And if there’s any juju I don’t want, it’s bad juju from a
goddess who deals in volcanoes.
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