Our inn keepers gamely drove us up to the 10,000 foot summit of Haleakala in the morning. What's more, we didn't have to pay the entrance fee because they had some sort of pass.

The view from the summit is very weird. The crater looks lunar--lots of sand and rocks and from that viewpoint, no vegetation. The first day, we hiked 10 miles down a trail called Sliding Sands to a camp area called Paliku. The trail went in switchbacks for a long time until the floor of the crater, and then snaked around brown and red cinder cones.

Along the way we passed a guy heading a team of horses (many tourists ride down on horseback). He told Eric that up the trail, we would meet his partner, a guy named Craig. We were supposed to tell Craig that Nate had said we could have a cold beer. Eric was totally into it. As we walked away, Nate said that if Craig said he didn't have cold beer, he was lying. Eric promised to work on him.

Nearly a mile later, we met Craig. He was happy that we knew his name. I guess he thought we had some good news for him. When Eric asked him for a beer instead, Craig laughed. That was the end of Eric's cold-beer-in-the-crater fantasy.

Paliku gets 200 inches of rain a year. Oddly it didn't rain that night. We made dinner and fell asleep. Sometime early in the morning I got up to go to the bathroom and saw a perfect Orion overhead.

The next day we hiked about six miles, mostly over flat lava and sand, to the only other campsite in the crater, Holua. After a siesta, we set out to find a quarter-mile lava tube we had read about. We didn't know where it was, only that it was on a faintly marked trail close by.

If you're going to Haleakala, here's how to get to the lava tube: when you leave Holua, somewhere less than 100 yards down the only trail away from the cabin, you'll see a trail going off to your right. Follow that for about 50 to 100 yards and you'll see a sign warning you of "steep drops" in the cave.

Eric was totally impressed. It was an amazing tube. We had to scramble down some boulders to get into it, and then climb down a steel ladder. After that, we scrambled over boulders by flashlight. Sometimes the roof was only four feet high; at other times it soared to 20 feet high. It was covered with stalagtites, I guess--pointy pieces of lava sticking an inch or two down from the top. It was wet. Personally, I couldn't wait to get out of there. Eric had thought the tube was 50 yards long. He was happy to hear it was much longer.

Eventually it opened up into a gravelly wide surface that you could walk on easily. Near the end was a huge hole in the 10-foot high ceiling, with a pile of lava rocks underneath. When we eventually made it out the end, we decided to hike back above ground.

That night, we both stayed up for the stars. As it got dark, a bright light--as bright as the barge lights on the Mississippi--popped over the horizon of a mountain. It was the moon. Within five minutes, it rose. It was full and blinding. So we didn't see many stars. But with binoculars and a sky chart, we found Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and at least one of Jupiter's moons.

This morning, Oct. 16, we hiked out. The trail was only four miles long, and gained only 1,000 feet. We thought it might be really hard but it was amazingly easy. At the top, the first car that saw us gave us a ride to the bottom of the volcano. From there we went to a lodge for a way-too-expensive lunch, and then got another ride back to our b&b.

Leaving Hawaii was mostly uneventful. The next morning we rode from our b&b to the Maui airport area, spent hours in a KMart (developing film etc), and spent more hours assembling the bikes. We got the last flite that nite to Oahu. Unfortunately, we weren't leaving Oahu until two nites later.

That's when I got a money saving idea. Earlier I had seen all sorts of people sacked out at the airport, on the concrete. It was so warm. I asked Eric if he wanted to try. He seemed a little shocked but agreed. We laid out our bags in front of the immigration office, several yards away from the next sleeper, who might have been homeless or just a scruffy traveller. Unfortunately our bed site was also under a bright light. I laid a bandanna across my eyes and conked out. Eric stayed up late reading Flashman. At one point I looked over and saw Eric conked out with Flashman open across his face. It was a little eerie going to sleep to the mechanical voice that periodically announced over the PA system that parking at the terminal was forbidden. "Mahalo for your cooperation," it said over and over. The next morning, a guard rousted us at 4:30, by politely but loudly announcing Good Morning. Eric was so startled the guard apologized. I guess the airport allows sleepers as long as they get up at 4:30, before the other early morning passengers arrive. I thought it was pretty nice of them to let us sleep there at all. Especially since we found out later the airport has an on-site micro hotel, for about $35? a nite--single occupancy only.

Eric was totally groggy. Said he hadn't slept well at all. We dragged ourselves away from the curb, rented a car, and tried to fit in some sightseeing before checking into a hotel in Oahu later that day so I could get some work done. By the time we left for Auckland the next nite, we had hiked Diamond Head, visited the USS Arizona, walked around Punchbowl, etc. We even swam at Haunama Bay, for free, since we arrived late and no one was there to collect fares.

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