Trip to the Big Island of Hawaii in February 2002

We attended the Hawaiian Juggling Festival Feb. 19-26.  It was held at Belly Acres, the home of some Hawaiian juggling friends.   There are pictures of the juggling festival here.  During the festival we went on some excursions with the other jugglers to local sites.  We took a hike to New Beach where lava covered an old bay and beach resort in the early 90's.  Then we hiked along the ocean cliff to a beautiful black sand beach.

Our friend Kiko took us sailing in Hilo Bay and hiking by the ocean at Punaluu.  We saw old pipeline supports where the molasses was piped to ships for transport.  Kiko showed us some huge lava cracks where freshwater collects in pools in the bottom.  Some of us took a cool dip.  It was COLD water ... some of us declined :)

We walked through Lava Trees State Park where the lava made strange formations from the burned trees.

We visited Volcanoes National Park where we drove through the park around the rim of the collapsed main caldera, walked through a lava tube and took a beautiful 4-mile hike through a smaller caldera and around the rim (Kiluea Iki hike).

Below are some pictures of the place where we stayed the entire trip.  It's called Hale Kipuka Lodge and is the home of Phil and Diane.  It's near Kehena Beach and Belly Acres in the lower Puna district on the Big Island of Hawaii.  They threw a neighborhood party one night for all six of us jugglers staying there ... good food ... juggling and boomerangs ... great fun!