Mother nature is impressive in her raw power! We took an early morning lava boat tour with Kalapana Cultural Tours - the same local company that I went with last year. Back then, the ocean entry was a single lava hose emitted directly from the earth from a lava tube. Today, the lava was flowing from fissure 8 (out of 24 for this most recent event), about 8 miles away, into the sea over a 2.5 mile area. And the original launching point of past lava tours has been isolated from the rest of the island by the lava so the tours now start from the city of Hilo.

Compared to last year's lava hose, even the most rapid entry points looked comparatively slow. For much of the lava, you could barely tell it was moving. Some of it would drip into the sea like a leaky faucet. Very different!

The scale was completely different as well. The entry area of 2.5 miles is amazingly large. Its as if the entire coastline is on fire. I got some surprisingly decent close up shots but nothing that shows the full scale of this event.

Even at a safe distance away, the water was hot - a comfortable temperature for a nice shower. I wouldn't want to see what it was like closer to shore!

Luckily, the ocean was pretty calm today. We had originally been scheduled to go yesterday but it was cancelled due to rough seas. There were still waves though but the boat handled it quite well.

On Lava Boat Tour with Kalapana Cultural Tours