Poke and Pyroclastics

Actually managed to successfully get the washing and tumble drying done today.
After chores, we hot footed it down to Suisan, the fish market, to pick up some fish for dinner and poke for lunch.
Poke is a traditional Hawaiian dish of raw fish marinated in a variety of ways, served with rice and salad. Suisan has a variety of poke for sale and after sampling a couple of types, we settled on the fish eggs and spring onion one. Plus some rice with a seaweed and sesame seed topping. We also bought some Marlin for dinner.
Having set ourselves a frenetic pace for our first few days on Big Island, we decided to have some time at the pool chilling out. Strange how it makes you feel even more tired, but there we go.
And so to lunch. I can’t say I’ll be eating poke on a regular basis. In fact, make that never. The texture was akin to raw liver and the taste wasn’t much better. The sample had been just one piece. That was enough, more turned out to be overkill. The rice was the best bit. Steve and I bravely soldiered on and ate most of it but it wasn’t fun. Luckily I had a family sized pack of Oreos to take the taste away.
In the afternoon we headed for Kilauea caldera. Disappointingly, there is no longer lava flowing into the sea, and because of the lava lake, you can’t get close to the caldera. You can however view the caldera from the Jagger museum. We decided to do a short hike across the Kilauea iki crater, walk through the Thurston lava tube and then get back to see the glow from the lava lake at sunset.
Great plan. The crater walk was just how I imagine Mars to look. The ground is similar to an enormous chocolate brownie that has cracked on the top. Underneath is a gooey centre – in this case lava. It was quite unearthly and eerie.
The lava tube was incredible. More like a long cave. It stretches for 1.5km but we were only permitted to hike a very small section.
We arrived at Kilauea crater just as the sun was going down. Many people come to see the crater at sunset so it was packed at the main viewing point. However, we had spotted our own little viewing point and so were able to get an unhindered look.
The lava lake had risen a little so we could see the glow from it very clearly. No eruptions but still a very cool sight.
Home by 7.45pm. The wind was whipping up, feels as though a storm is coming.
The Marlin was delicious.