Don't you mean the Big Island? Thats the only place I know where lava crosses the road. BTW only two types of lava, a'a, and pahoehoe (a'a's the rough stuff). Pele's hair is windblown volcanic glass. As for the legend of Pele I have friends that swear they have seen her, but then again the pakalolo's pretty good on the Big Island. In ancient times Pele lived in Haleakala on Maui, she now lives in Kilauea on Hawaii.
Yes, Mensch, sorry...in my haste to remember the details (of which a few I forgot) I left out the part where we flew from Maui to the Big Island. Pele's hair...that's what I sat on, LOL...we heard lots of legends about Pele from our tour driver, which were truly fascinating. About her riding a horse; taking a ride in a man's car and then later he was saved because he didn't reject her because she had transformed herself into an old woman, etc etc. I also didn't take any chances and threw flowers into the big pit (if that's what you would call it) when we toured there. ;-) There was a rock, I remember...and I have a picture of it...where if you look close enough, you can see the face of a beautiful woman at one glance, then the face of an old woman the next. Do you know what I am talking about? Anyway...there was another legend that if Pele was angered she would throw "fireballs" into the sky..and if you were on a plane the pilot was suppossed to curse at it...which would make it miss. ?? That was the most ludicrous of them all...but the fact that I was taking a plane back to Maui that night had me looking all over the place for glowing fireballs aimed at our plane and I mentioned this to the captain who LOL'd, and rightly so..I still cussed the whole way back, just in case. ;-)
It was a wonderful day trip and very fascinating. The first stop was at the Falls...where unfortunately I got a sudden case of being afraid of heights and threw up. Then we went to the Macadamian Nut factory which was fun..but a little boring. We also took a horseback trip on a dormant volcano ON Maui which was neat until I learned that out of the 10 of us going on the trip, since I had ridden a horse more than once, I got the fastest horse. His name was Black Knight. No kidding...and I didn't have any problem with riding on sandy part of the ridge of the volcano until we got the a'a...and my horse had to go first after the guide's horse...I just closed my eyes and prayed as he made his way down a steep embankment. Of course the fact that my guide told me not to even TOUCH the reins did not help in the matter, LOL...but, we made it down and back up just fine and the horse and I became fast friends..all in all, it was a fascinating trip and I can't wait to go back.
Next in my series of Maui adventures will be the time I attempted to snorkel....*grins*