Thinking Allowed: A doting parent

When we went on the amazing hike where we walked across a steaming caldera Aurora was surprisingly unimpressed. For some reason she was a bit grumpy to begin with and, while she liked the walk, she thought we were going into a volcano with real lava. I spent a good while discussing how volcanoes and lava work and the perils of red lava. If it's red it is dangerous. But Aurora didn't care about things like danger and got excited when I told her that there was flowing lava on the island and in the name of education we could make a trip to see it. However, it would mean she would have to walk 9 miles. Although she had complained that the 5 mile hike was too long she was enthusiastic to hike twice the distance to see the red lava.

In the end we all went as a family. We drove out to where the road ends in the early evening and rented bicycles and trailers to accommodate our tribe. Zadie is a bit young for bike rides on bumpy gravel roads but we put her entire car seat in the trailer with Aurora sitting on the edge and she looked cozy. And so we set out through the lava fields on a gravel road that got more and more rugged the farther out we went. We oohed and aahed at the houses that have been built right on top of sinister black crumply lava and we sweated buckets as we hauled our trailers of living treasures up the lava swells. We got to the end of the road around dusk and started our walk inland over the lava field. Jakob eventually turned back with Tova but Zadie, Aurora, Sophia and I ploughed on towards the red glowy river. As we got closer it got hotter and I could feel particles of lava debris showering us lightly. The hard lava crunched under our feet sending up little sprays of sharp glassy lava bits. And it kept getting hotter and Sophia started to get a bit scared. And then it was really hot and I looked down and could see a bright red glow in the cracks between our feet. Sophia wanted to go back because she was scared and I thought "why am I standing here over glowing red lava with my two young children and newborn?" And it was nearly dark and we had no light aside from the eerie glow beneath us. So we turned back. Aurora was entirely disappointed because she was having a great time and really wanted to see the lava flowing (apparently seeing lava right below her wasn't enough). And I though would they let all these people walk out here if it was that dangerous? And what are the chances that a crack would open up right under us? So I told Sophia that it was alright she was scared but we would walk the last little bit quickly. Aurora cheered and Sophia held onto my hand but agreed to come along as she does enjoy scary things. By the time we got to the spot where the lava was flowing we were all streaming with sweat and had to keep moving so our feet wouldn't feel like they were burning. It was really worth it though. And Aurora was buoyant on the dark journey back to Jakob.

Then we all sat together on the lava rocks as a family to watch the lava pouring into the ocean. According to the ranger we met there is a lot of lava pouring continuously into the water (can't remember the astoundingly large number, it's like millions of tons) but they have no idea where it is going as no new land is forming at the site. I asked her how deep below us the lava was that we could see and she said they have no idea but could be a few feet (no wonder it was so hot!). I asked about danger and her reply was that they really don't know what the volcano is going to do when but so far no one had died. Glad I didn't ask her these questions before our trek out!

So we learned that Aurora, while normally a very cautious child, has a streak of adventurousness and daring. And we all like going for family bike rides in the pitch black over lava fields. Oh yeah and lava is really amazing.