Lava, Sugar Cane and Rain

Today, Tuesday, we should have been hiking to see flowing lava; Steve's been looking forward to this day for months and months. But not only did the US government shutdown stop us going into the national park, but the volcano, being a natural and evolving entity, has changed its eruption patterns and is not producing visible quantities of the flowing stuff. Even the ship has changed its route because there is no lava to be seen entering the sea. Normally it sails past and you can listen to a geology talk at the same time, but tonight for the first time in 6 months it's taking the shorter route. Hey ho, such is life. 

Instead of our lava hike we spent the whole day visiting lots of different volcanic areas, where the lava is young - 1950's to 1990. It was a pretty cool day, especially walking about 200m through part of a massive lava tube - and it rained for the first time since we left NZ! Very hot and humid, not at all cold. Our guide also stopped at a small roadside stall and asked the chap to cut us some sugar cane to chew on! Better than Scarborough rock! Even though we didn't hike today, I'm actually bushed, so just going to post a few photos and call it a day :-)