© 2009 Ede Schweizer, All rights reserved.   Made in California.  Built to scroll right. Brandie getting ready to hit the skies They have room on this bird for two pilots? Walking the strip Got my ears on Heart-throb Bob checking all the pre-flight vitals, or is he just wondering what all these dials are for? Just like floating on air, take-off was amazingly smooth Our first glimpse of Mauna Kea to the south Small cinder cones in the foreground, just in front of a more recent lava flow 'Is this thing on? - Over.' Small airfield You can pretty much date the lava flows according to colour, the darker the more recent First views into the Mauna Loa Crater area with white plumes of sulfuric dioxide The Volcanoes National Park Museum is in this photo in the bottom right to give a bit of scale Thankfully nothing other than this visible cloud of gas has been added to the recent activity list You can see a road winding around the pluming crater from right to left, this was closed due to air quality Heading south we came across another series of pluming vents, a small geo-instrument near the opening Our pilot put us right over the top of this opening, and there it was, molten lava, serious This photo feels like it was taken around the dawn of time A flow totally taking out a 4-ways This massive lava flow left just a small littering of trees along its edges Some more than amazing cloud formations near the coastline Not much of a beach, but this is where lava meets ocean While we were visiting this was where the lava was actually dropping right into the sea water Shiny new liquid rock seeps across the barren scape Just shear cliffs with waves breaking them into smaller bits of rock, nature at work First sighting of lava entering the Pacific and increasing the size of the Big Island Newly born earth meeting the currents of an ancient sea The formation of an island Pele in action, the goddess of the volcano Fire and water Captain Bob flipping us from one side to the other for some spectacular views Some crazies, cheating death for a close-up view of the open lava flow. Hmmmm, are they wearing dockers? Seems safe. Apparently a shelf just like this one slid off into the ocean a few weeks prior. You can see people on the shiny new lava to the right One last look into the heart of earth-creation Here's where we took a walk across the lava, on the right of this photo, out to a night lava viewing location, super cool Camping on the beach Entering the valley of water Waterfalls in every direction along steep valley walls Lazy cows Back to the northside of the island through the clouds Home again Roger that, we made it!