Holoholo Adventures

07/18/2024

Peeps! please watch and share far and wide even beyond your FB bubble. I know it is an hour long but it is loaded with good and inspirational messages! We have work to do people! It is our time!

Now is the time for action, not distraction! Project 2025 threatens our democracy. While we know that Project 2025 will destroy civil rights, reproductive fr...

01/07/2024

We are so very sorry to say that we no longer conduct tours on the big island. It is a sad state of affairs, but our little business just could not survive Covid. Thank you for your interest though. Aloha.

11/15/2021

Well, after long and hard considerations, Jane and I are, in all likelihood, and with great sadness, pulling the plug on our tour business, Holoholo Adventures. (Holoholoadventures.com) we just don’t see a clear path to reopening, given our current situations. It has been an extreme joy to provide positive and engaging experiences for our thoughtful and considerate guests of our beautiful island. It was a fantastic ride. Feel free to follow the link here to see some of adventures we created. Our domain will expire 12/03. A hui hou.

Small group private guided tours in Hilo, Hawaii, volcanoes, rain forests, family friendly, natural history tours. Holoholo Adventure Tours.

08/11/2021

Aloha from the Big Island
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We hope all is well with you and yours.
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It is with great anticipation that we look to a time in the future when we can return to welcoming visitors safely to our island.
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Sadly, that time is “not yet.”
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Somewhere between eager travelers and weary business owners is a labyrinth of challenges to navigate; cautious safety guidelines and protocols, chaotic logistics, and fluctuating cruise ship schedules.

It seems a lifetime ago that travel was a “simple” pleasure.
We fervently await our reopening, and appreciate your patience as we determine when this can happen safely. It will be delightful to again be able to share our gorgeous and diverse island with small groups of folks out to enjoy a grand adventure.
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Please keep checking for current updates or contact us
with your questions.

We hope that “soon” we will be able to share our Aloha in person!
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Jane & DeWaine Tollefsrud

08/17/2020

Update from Hawai'i. Aloha
We hope all is well with you and yours.

In support of the worldwide attempt to reduce the spread of Covid 19, Holoholo Adventure Tours has suspended all of our tours in Hawaii until the evidence says it is safe to reopen. While many of the Big Island's National and State Parks and beaches are currently open with limited access and health protocols in place, we now have a mandatory 14-day quarantine for ALL visitors arriving on our island until further notice.
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It is especially important during this time of crisis that we realize we are all in this together. Please nurture your empathy and compassion so that when we reunite “on the other side” of this outbreak, we can resume our relationships, lives, and future plans with hope and appreciation.
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For now, we share our aloha in spirit. Let’s get past this and share our aloha in person.
Thank you for your patience. Stay safe!

Jane & DeWaine Tollefsrud

03/23/2020

Aloha from the Big Island.

We hope all is well with you and yours.

In support of the worldwide attempt to reduce the spread of Covid 19, Holoholo Adventure Tours is currently suspending all of our tours in Hawaii. The closing of all National, State, and County parks and beaches eliminates 100% of our destination sites, plus beginning 3/26/2020 (and until further notice), there is a mandated 14-day quarantine for all visitors arriving in our state.

It is especially important during this time of crisis that we realize we are all in this together. Please nurture your empathy and compassion so that when we reunite “on the other side,” we can resume our relationships, lives, and future plans with hope and appreciation.

So for now, we share our aloha in spirit. Let’s get past this and share our aloha in person.

Thank you for your patience. Stay safe!

A hui hou. Mālama pono!

DeWaine and Jane

12/06/2019

Aloha! This is a very clear and concise summary of last year’s events. Come on over and see for yourselves!

Fissures sliced through Kīlauea Volcano’s lower East Rift Zone in 2018, and lava engulfed hundreds of structures. Lava chemistry tracked changes in composition as the draining and caldera collapses stirred up deeper, hotter parts of the summit magma system and sent mixed magma down the rift.

USGS scientists shared their findings in a new article, “The tangled tale of Kīlauea’s 2018 eruption as told by geochemical monitoring” (abstract at http://ow.ly/SrPK50xtPxZ).

From May 3-9, 2018, lavas erupting in the lower East Rift Zone were viscous and cool (~2030°F). These lavas were from pockets of magma left over from prior LERZ eruptions that had been cooling and crystallizing for more than 55 years.

On May 13, an increase in inferred lava temperatures (~2066°F) heralded the arrival of hotter, more fluid lava. By May 28, activity focused at a single vent – fissure 8 – with a massive outpouring of hotter (~2093°F) lava that continued for more than 2 months.

By the final 20 days of the eruption, most of the old magma stored within the active rift system had flushed out and the last and volumetrically more substantial source of magma was coming from the summit magma system.

During the eruption, this information was used to inform response teams of shifts in eruptive conditions and potential hazards. The application of routine lava chemistry analysis provided an unparalleled opportunity to understand changes in magma characteristics during this rapidly evolving eruptive crisis.

About the image: (A) Simplified model of Kīlauea’s magma system feeding the 2018 lower East Rift Zone eruption and locations of hypothesized magma end-members (b.s.l. is “below sea level”). (B) Fluid basalt erupting from fissure 20 on May 20, 2018. (C) Fissure 17 erupting andesite more explosively about a half a mile away.

09/18/2019

Aloha kakou! This is one of the best narratives I've seen on the eruption events of last year. It is very clear and concise with some great visuals! I have it bookmarked to come back to again and again. We drive over a section of the new lava on one of our tours and picnic near the newest black sand beach in the world. Come experience this awesome force of nature with us! https://wim.usgs.gov/geonarrative/kilauea2018/

In 2018, Kīlauea Volcano had the largest lower East Rift Zone eruption and summit collapse in at least 200 years. This geonarrative provides a brief introduction to recent eruptions at Kīlauea Volcano, Hawaii, highlighting the circumstances leading up to and summarizing the 2018 lower East Rift Zo...

07/06/2019

We have never been bothered by our coquis and a quiet night without them seems odd and lonely. I always suspected that they would be doing more good than harm. It seems to me that they are growing bigger and their calls are changing. I wonder if anyone is studying this.

Coquis are jumping for joy at news that they have been vindicated for alleged crimes against Hawaii. Contrary to what we have been told, coquis do not compete with native birds for insects, and there are predators for coquis in Hawaii. For years, the government has made a lot of noise about the coqu...

06/30/2019

When I was a kid, one of my fantasies was to live in a world festooned with reptiles. All the ones I have kept were contained in controlled environments with carefully prepared diets. I am delighted to now share my house with dozens of free range lizards of 5 species, none of which require anything from me. They are my pest control and earn their living every day! I live my childhood fantasies everyday and, even better, with a person who shares my enthusiasm for our housemates!

06/05/2019

Hawai'i is said to be the "extinction capital of the world." Native species are often crowded out by new arrivals that have no natural predators. There is no evidence of this new caterpillar on Big Island as yet. But I fear it may be only a question of time. Semper vigilans!

The invasive Arcte coerula (Ramie moth) caterpillar has been found on Maui. Biologists found the invasive species feeding on māmaki in Olowalu.

05/09/2019

This is hugely good news, people!

We have some super exciting news to announce! For the first time in almost 20 years there is an ʻAlalā nest in the wild! The presence of eggs has yet to be confirmed but based on the femaleʻs behavior it seems she is incubating. “While it’s difficult to see exactly what’s in the nest from observations on the ground we do believe that Manaiakalani is likely sitting on eggs and we’ve observed her male partner, Mana'olana bringing her food regularly,” said Dr. Alison Greggor, Postdoctoral Research Associate, with the Institute for Conservation Research, San Diego Zoo Global. ʻAlalā typically lay between three and five eggs and will incubate them for an average of twenty-one days. If these eggs hatch the chicks would be the first ʻAlalā hatched in the wild in two decades.
This is another positive step in the long journey to recovery for this species.
Check out the full story on our website: http://dlnr.hawaii.gov/alalaproject/2019/05/08/first-nesting-behavior-of-released-ʻalala-almost-two-years-post-release/
Photo Credit: San Diego Zoo Global

05/03/2019

Although I have not watched this to the end as yet, this documentary seems to be very good at presenting the impact of last year's eruption on people's lives. It also helps illustrate why we do not bring people up into Leilani yet. Residents need time to process and heal and we respect that. The time will come at some point, but certainly not now.

03/24/2019

I will be looking for the results of this study! It raises so many questions! And it again illustrates how cool bugs are. There are so many interesting things about this island, so what are you waiting for? Come on over and let's go explore! https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/03/these-intrepid-crickets-hawaii-s-lava-home-sweet-home?fbclid=IwAR14vnc35hUGjSFg4FSt_qVZXUJE9CpJ6oAG-dBkgKnUOPnYz-RcgXfVK60

Scientists probe how an insect colonizes Hawaii’s fresh flows

03/23/2019

Many of the preconceived notions we had about the eruptions of our Hawaiian volcanoes have been turned upside down by the observations of USGS scientists. Come holoholo with us and learn more about the wonders of our living planet!

Researchers are re-evaluating early assumptions about the role groundwater played in triggering the explosive eruptions at the summit of Kīlauea Volcano and are now looking at the build-up of gases from retreating magma as a likely trigger.

In February 1924, the surface of the lava lake at Halema‘uma‘u dropped rapidly and disappeared from view. Throughout March and April, the crater floor subsided as magma moved out of the summit reservoir into the East Rift Zone. A series of explosions began during the night of May 10–11, 1924, tossing large chunks of rock onto the caldera floor and sending ash plumes more than 2 km (1 mi) high. The trigger for the 1924 explosions was thought to be heated groundwater flowing into the empty conduit.

Fast-forward to May 2018 (94 years later) when the scene was frighteningly similar. Magma drained from Kīlauea's shallow summit reservoir and moved into the East Rift Zone. The summit lava lake was no longer visible on May 10, and likely dropped below the water table on May 11–12, 2018. Explosive activity was considered a strong possibility given what happened in 1924. But, while moderate explosions and associated ash plumes did occur in 2018, major explosions like those of 1924 did not.

Why not? Researchers have analyzed core samples from a deep well in the area and are using computer models to understand more about how quickly groundwater moves through this volcanic area. The answer is, that it takes months to years for groundwater to reach the conduit.

A currently favored idea is that gas from the retreating magma, rather than groundwater steam, powered the explosions (as viewed in the photo comparison of 1924 and 2018). This idea is being used to reconsider what we understand about the eruptions (and hazards) of Kīlauea Volcano's past, present, and future.

Read more in this week’s edition of HVO’s Volcano Watch, “Did groundwater trigger explosive eruptions at Kīlauea?” at https://volcanoes.usgs.gov/observatories/hvo/hvo_volcano_watch.html?vwid=1404.

03/19/2019

Wow! Time flies! It is a privilege to have been able to witness this ongoing geological process! Come on over and let’s go explore this incredible landscape together!

02/10/2019

Aloha! We have added brand new viewing opportunities in new tours! Including driving over the new cooled lava flows to the newest black sand beach in the world and we have been having a blast! Check out our website www.holoholoadventures.com! Tell your friends!

02/09/2019

Aloha! This is my first post in a while but I have not forgotten you all! Busy times! I thought I'd share this NOVA documentary on our volcanic excitment this last year. Because of our proximity to and intimate relationship with Leilani it was an experience; both heartbreaking and awesome. Come over and we will drive across the new road over the new lava flows to see the newest black sand beach in the world! https://www.pbs.org/video/kilauea-hawaii-on-fire-9wv2dd/

Journey to Kīlauea volcano to investigate the eruptions that shook Hawaiʻi in 2018.