Flat worms have acquired unique features in the process of evolution. a brief description of type flatworms:

• endoderm (inner layer);
• mesoderm (middle layer);
• ectoderm (outer layer).

Type flatworms, classes:

1. tape;
2. gyrocotilides;
3. ciliary;
4. trematodes;
5. monogeneans;
6. cestode-like;
7. aspidogastra.

Characteristics and examples of common representatives of the class

The general characteristics of the type of flatworm does not provide an understanding of each species. Let's take a closer look at the types of flatworms, organ systems, descriptions and examples of representatives:

Fact! Third world countries are trying unsuccessfully to combat the invasion, while in a more developed society, cases of self-infection with flatworms have already been recorded to reduce body weight.

Organ system

Organ names

Characteristics There are enough worms in nature, it is only important to know about those that pose a danger to humans. For example, marine flatworms turbellaria - beautiful view primary invertebrates, often found in salt waters. The body cavity of flatworm turbellaria, like many other representatives of the class, does not have internal sections, blood, gas exchange systems, but it is equipped with powerful longitudinal and transverse muscles. Another amazing species is planaria. Predators capable of starving for up to 12 months, significantly decreasing in volume and "eating" themselves. They can retain signs of life even with a reduction in mass and volume by 250-300 times. But as soon as a favorable period begins, individuals develop to normal sizes.

Group composition and typical representatives

The most famous representatives of flatworms are planaria (Turbellaria: Tricladida), liver fluke and cat fluke (trematodes), bovine tapeworm, pork tapeworm, broad tapeworm, echinococcus (tapeworms).

Food and movement

Structure

The body is bilaterally symmetric, with clearly defined head and tail ends, somewhat flattened in the dorsoventral direction, in large representatives it is strongly flattened. The body cavity is not developed (except for some phases of the life cycle of tapeworms and flukes). The exchange of gases is carried out across the entire surface of the body; respiratory organs and blood vessels are absent.

Body covers

Outside, the body is covered with a single layer of epithelium. In ciliary worms, or turbellaria, the epithelium consists of cells that carry cilia. Flukes, monogeneans, cestodes and tapeworms are deprived of ciliary epithelium for most of their life (although ciliary cells can be found in larval forms); their integuments are represented by the so-called tegument, in a number of groups bearing microvilli or chitinous hooks. The tegument-bearing flatworms belong to the Neodermata group.

Musculature

Under the epithelium is a muscular sac, consisting of several layers of muscle cells not differentiated into individual muscles (a certain differentiation is observed only in the region of the pharynx and genitals). The cells of the outer muscle layer are oriented transversely, the inner one - along the anteroposterior axis of the body. The outer layer is called the annular muscle layer, and the inner layer is called the longitudinal muscle layer.

Pharynx and intestines

In all groups, except for cestode and tapeworms, there is a pharynx leading into the intestine or, as in the so-called intestinal turbellaria, into the digestive parenchyma. The intestine is blindly closed and communicates with the environment only through the oral opening. Several large turbellaria have anal pores (sometimes several), but this is more the exception than the rule. In small forms, the intestine is straight, in large ones (planaria, flukes) it can branch strongly. The pharynx is located on the abdominal surface, often in the middle or closer to the posterior end of the body, in some groups it is displaced forward. In cestode and tapeworms, the intestine is absent.

October 19, 2014

A piece of paradise on our planet, fabulous beaches and bright sun, gentle and cold cocktails, surfing and shrimp - it sounds extremely pleasant and tempting.

It’s so good that this is not just a dream or a Hollywood film, this is a reality, this is the Hawaiian Islands. They are located in the northern part The Pacific, and at the same time is the fiftieth state of the United States. The main one has a corresponding name - Hawaii, or Big Hawaiian Island. Besides it, 5 more islands are considered the main ones - Oahu, Kauai, Maui, Molokai and Lanai. All 24 islands of the Hawaiian archipelago are unique and can surprise everyone, even those who have seen a lot in this life. In the vastness of Hawaii, you can find virtually all manifestations of nature - from rugged to calm mountains, from hot beaches with black sand to tropical rainforests, from rocky wastelands to overgrown impenetrable jungle.

The culture

Also Hawaii is known for its ancient and rich culture. Local residents jealously cherish the old laws and traditions of their people. All the well-known flower garlands have their roots in the culture of the people of Hawaii. According to this tradition, such garlands are given along with a kiss, but while the person who put these flowers on you is nearby, it is not allowed to remove the gift. Canoe is also a prime example of the manifestation of the creativity and traditions of this tribe. The early inhabitants of Hawaii were very famous for their ability to build such unusual boats. For those who respect traditions, the rite of prayer to the gods was very important. The craftsmen were obliged to pray to them and make offerings for them without interruption: even before starting to cut trees, then in the process itself, and even after the trees were taken out of the forest. On the Hawaiian Islands There are a number of rules to follow in order to properly cut trees for canoes. Well, the Hawaiian language is also an amazing manifestation of culture. There are only 13 letters in it, 5 of them are vowels, the remaining 8 are consonants. Therefore, the Hawaiian alphabet is considered the shortest in the world. But this does not mean in any way that such a language is easy to learn. Not everyone will be able to cope with it, because basically the Hawaiian language consists of soft words that are not so easy to pronounce and remember.

Sports tourism

Hawaii is a great place for recreation or sports tourism. But besides this, it is worth remembering that it is quite dangerous. There is a deliberate number of both professional trails and trails for amateur tourists. But even if you are trained and confident, it’s a good idea to learn as much as you can about Hawaiian travel at first. For example, you should know that due to the proximity to the equator, it starts to get dark very early on the islands, which means you need to calculate your time so that you can catch the scenery and return to your hotel in time. Therefore, be smart and reasonable, and then you are provided with a simply delightful vacation in Hawaii.

Hawaiian islands photos

Tasmania, Rotorua Valley and Fiordland in New Zealand, Hawaii and Maui.

2017 / 11:09 | Varvara Pokrovskaya

Tasmania island

The climate of Australia, from the point of view of a European, cannot be called fertile. The interior regions of this continent are dry savannas and deserts, on the slopes of the Great Dividing Range facing the sea, an abundance of rain and humid stuffiness. And everywhere - heat, heat, heat ...

And only the island of Tasmania can be considered truly paradise, where a traveler from the Old World will find both the desired coolness and familiar mountain-forest landscapes, flavored, however, with a fair amount of purely Australian exoticism.

Australia would not be Australia if it did not amaze at every step with the unusualness of its flora and fauna, and Tasmania in this sense is no exception.

This huge island, larger than Sri Lanka and only slightly smaller than Ireland or Haiti, is separated from the mainland by a two-hundred-kilometer Bass Strait. Two island chains to the west and east of the strait connect Tasmania with the rest of Australia. When you look on a sunny day from the southern tip of the mainland - Cape Southeast - towards Tasmania, the view of these islets, two intermittent bridges rising over the blue smooth surface of the Bass Strait, reminds us that once Australia and its largest island formed a single land mass ...

The shores of Tasmania are indented by narrow deep bays, similar to the fjords of Norway. Mountainous terrain, an abundance of forests and lakes, combined with a cool climate, sharply distinguish Tasmania from the arid plains of inner Australia, as well as from its overgrown tropical rainforests. east coast... For European travelers, this island most of all resembles the highlands of Scotland.

And some European tourists even call Tasmania "Switzerland in miniature". On its mountainous shores, indented by bays and washed by the breath of the sea wind, wonderful green valleys open up, leading to the center of the island, on a plateau where lakes shine, wooded hills and their tops rise, covered with a snow blanket for six months.

The highest of these peaks is Ben Lomond, which raises its ridge one and a half kilometers above sea level (by Australian standards, this is not so little: above Ben Lomond there are only "Australian Alps" with the highest mountain in Australia - Kostsyushko). Numerous lakes, giving rise to turbulent rapids, give the Tasmanian landscape a completely alpine look. Are there lakes almost in the center of the island? Great Lake. It, like the neighboring Lakes St. Clair and Eco, serves as one of the sources of the main river of Tasmania - the Derwent. All of these bodies of water are hidden in the depths of the mountains, surrounded by wild rocks with jagged ridges, and are indeed very similar to the Scottish or Swiss lakes.

And the rivers of Tasmania are also unlike the Australian ones, sluggish, muddy and drying up for ten months a year. They are born from the pure mountain springs or always full-flowing lakes and all year round rush noisily along their rocky channels in deep gorges, washed in basalts and shales, among dense forests of tree ferns and meadows strewn with bright flowers, until they finally flow into narrow bays. In the lower reaches, they are even similar, and along the river Derwent, for example, motor ships rise forty kilometers from the mouth.

Despite the dissimilarity of the climate, the flora of Tasmania and Australia is the same. Of the more than a thousand plants living on the island, only three hundred are not found on the mainland. And here, as well as on the other side of the Bass Strait, the mountain slopes are covered with eucalyptus forests. One of the species of these amazing trees, globular eucalyptus, reaches one hundred and twenty meters in height, rivaling the growth of the recognized record holder of the green kingdom - the American sequoia. The humid gorges are home to giant tree ferns and Franklin pines, renowned for their luxurious red woods. There are enough flowers in Tasmania: there are more than eighty species of orchids alone!

In the forests of Tasmania, however, there is no such variety of tree species, as, for example, in the tropical rainforests of Queensland in northeastern Australia. Five or six, maximum eight species of plants dominate here, but the abundance of moisture and mild winters allow them to develop to gigantic proportions. Eucalyptus and tree ferns are adjacent to southern beeches and pines, so that Tasmanian forests are a kind of mixture of tropical vegetation and trees of the temperate climate zone.

Animal world Tasmania, this splinter of Australia, is naturally very similar to the Australian one. True, some animals and birds live only on the island, but only because on the mainland they were destroyed by man or displaced by the animals brought by him.

First of all, only Tasmania is home to two of the three predators of the Australian fauna: the marsupial wolf and the marsupial devil. Only the marsupial marten is found on the mainland.
Once the marsupial wolf was widespread in Australia, however, apparently, in the Stone Age, it gave way in the struggle for survival to the dingo brought here by the aborigines and the feral dog and became extinct, leaving the plains of the continent to its more friendly and aggressive competitors. This short-footed animal with a striped back, like a tiger's, hunted mainly for kangaroos, not disdaining, however, also rats, echidnas, lizards and birds.

In Tasmania, difficult days came for him when farmers from England began to develop the island. The predator attacking the sheep was mercilessly exterminated, and now only in the most deaf mountain gorges occasionally there are traces of it.

The marsupial devil is still preserved in many of the mountainous regions of Tasmania. Unlike another common predator here - the marsupial marten, which is easily tamed and often lives in houses instead of a cat, the devil has a vicious and indomitable nature. Frenzied rage, combined with an eerie, howling roar heard at night when he goes hunting, and became the reason that not so large (with a small dog) and not at all dangerous for humans, the animal received such an unsympathetic nickname.

The menu of marsupial devils consists mainly of lizards, rats, small tree kangaroos, parrots, frogs, and crayfish. The harm they bring to humans consists mostly of raids on chicken coops and, occasionally, attacks on a gaping lamb. Despite the gloomy and even unpleasant appearance, the marsupial devil amuses the zoologists watching him with his funny habits. For example, he (the only one of all animals!) Washes his face in an absolutely human way: he folds his paws with a ladle, which neither a cat, nor a raccoon, nor a monkey can do.

In recent years, how more tourists strive to get to Tasmania. Due to its proximity to the mainland, it is easily accessible for a traveler who has already crossed half the world to get to Australia. And everyone who has been here will agree that getting to know this picturesque and peculiar island is no less impressive than meeting two other island gems of the Southern Hemisphere: New Zealand and Tierra del Fuego.

Each of these three places is unusual and interesting in its own way, none is like the other, but in Tasmania there is more of a "European" charm, and therefore it becomes closer and dear to the heart of a traveler from the Old World, although the exoticism of the other two southern island worlds may seem, at first glance, more spectacular.

Rotorua Valley

There is probably no country on our planet that can compare with New Zealand in terms of the number of amazing, exotic and unique natural phenomena and objects collected on its relatively small territory.

Volcanoes and geysers, caves and waterfalls, fjords and glaciers, rare reptiles and birds, unique trees and flowers - it is difficult even to list all those natural wonders with which this small state located in the "extreme south" amazes the traveler.

But the most important miracle of New Zealand is the famous Rotorua Valley, which every guest of New Zealand considers it his duty to visit. And the New Zealanders themselves do not ignore this amazing corner of nature with their attention.

Rotorua is located in the center North Island New Zealand on the Volcanic Plateau. The Maori - the longtime inhabitants of this island - named the valley Takiva-Vaiariki, which means "Land of Hot Water". Even on the streets of the town of Rotorua, the center of this geothermal area, you can see jets of white steam gushing from the cracks of the sidewalks. Hundreds of hot and cold springs are found in the vicinity of the town and on the shores of the lake of the same name.

The Maori who lived here were clearly not timid people. They built their village Vakarevareva in the heart of this extraordinary area, amid the whistling jets of steam, the bubbling of hot springs, the roar of geysers and the bubbling of mud pots. Moreover, they tried to make better use of the natural features of Rotorua: huts were built on areas with warm soil heated from below, swimming pools were built, where they bathed in hot water all year round, and they even boiled fish, immersing it in a kind of "string bag" directly in natural boiling water.

And in our time, the hotels built here have pools filled with thermal waters, and heating in hotels provides the warmth of the earth's bowels.

But the main attraction of Rotorua is its famous geysers. There are dozens of them here, and streams, beating four to five meters in height, envelop in clouds of steam both the shores of Lake Rotorua and the outskirts of the village, where red wooden statues of Maori gods with fierce faces and protruding tongues lined up along the only street.
The most powerful geyser - Pohutu - throws a stream of boiling water thirty meters up. The water eruption lasts for an hour, or even longer. Sometimes several geysers hit at the same time, and sometimes they "work" alternately, as if trying to surpass each other with the power of jets and the unusual shape of the fountain.

White siliceous incrustations adorning the openings of natural fountains have yellow tints, formed from hydrogen sulfide dissolved in water. Unfortunately, not all of this not too fragrant gas is deposited in the form of sulfur emissions, and in the air of Rotorua you can feel its specific "aroma" even on the way to the lake.

The Poirenga River, which flows into Lake Rotorua, is fed by hot and cold springs. In some places, the streams of springs do not have time to mix and, dropping your hands into the water, you feel both warm and cold at the same time. Hot springs also gush from the bottom of the lake. And on the island of Mokoia, located in the middle of it, the most famous and popular among tourists is the hot spring of Hinemoa, bathing in which is an obligatory ritual for visitors to Rotorua.

The locals also bathe in Hinemoa. For them, this is an ancient sacred rite that brings health and strength to soldiers. The Maori believe that each lake or hot spring in Rotorua has its own taniwa-igarara - a dragon-like fabulous creature that protects its hot house from the encroachments of evil spirits. According to Maori legend, the Moon itself disappears from the firmament once a month to swim in the magical underground lake Aeva, which feeds geysers with water. After swimming in its living water. The moon is gaining strength and sets off on a new path across the sky. Therefore, the inhabitants of Vakarevareva willingly bathe in the waters of hot springs, which have such healing power.

About ten kilometers southeast of this kingdom of geysers, the famous Waimangu lakes are hidden in the crater of an extinct volcano - two reservoirs of blue and green colors. The color of the water in them is explained by the different composition of the rocks through which the springs that feed the lakes flow. The diversity of the waters is complemented here by the brightly colored rocks of the crater, to which iron oxides in places have given a red hue, and sulfur deposits - yellow.

For many centuries Waimangu was decorated with the wonderful Pink and White Terraces, which occupied an area of ​​more than five hectares and surpassed the beauty of their delicate cascades of lime tuff precipitated from hot springs, even the world famous Pamukkale terraces in Turkey.

Travelers were especially amazed by the White Terraces, which resembled a giant marble staircase covered with openwork carvings. Alas, in 1886, the catastrophic eruption of the nearby Tarawera volcano overnight destroyed this rare masterpiece, created by thermal springs for thousands of years.

In that year, June 10, powerful tremors woke up residents in the area. A violent explosion split the top of the Tarawera, and thick clouds of smoke and steam, illuminated by flashes of lightning, rose ten kilometers above the mountain. Flaming debris separated from the pillar of fire and fell with a crash and splash into the lake. Soon it turned into a kind of hell, where an eerie mixture of mud and steam bubbled. The evergreen forests on the slopes of Tarawera perished, fields and vegetable gardens in the area were destroyed. Two Maori villages were completely flooded with mud, and a hail of volcanic bombs fell on the neighboring town of Vairoa, killing sixteen of its inhabitants.

The terraces were buried under a thick layer of volcanic ash and lava chunks flying out of the volcano's crater. However, the volcano could not block the hot springs themselves forever. In 1900, a gigantic hot water fountain hit Waimangu from underground, the likes of which had never been seen in New Zealand. At that time, the Waimangu geyser was the most powerful in the world and threw out a powerful jet of water mixed with steam, stones and sand to a height of four hundred and fifty meters!

He raged and roared for hours, then fell silent, but after thirty hours he again threw out a fountain of boiling water. It was not easy to calculate the time when the next water eruption would begin, and several inquisitive onlookers paid with their lives for trying to study the quieted giant.

For four years, a giant geyser raged in the valley, shaking eyewitnesses with the fantastic size of its fountain. Then the Waimangu jet began to weaken, and in 1908 the geyser ceased to exist.

Another thermal area lies fifty kilometers south of Rotorua, near the largest New Zealand lake, Taupo. Here, in the Wairakei Valley, there is the famous "steam cave" Karapiti, from which clouds of steam erupt with great force, filling the surroundings with a frightening roar. Here, in 1958, the world's first geothermal power plant was built using groundwater to generate electricity.

Lake Taupo itself is amazingly picturesque. The depth of this huge reservoir, located in the very center of the Volcanic Plateau, reaches one hundred meters. From the south, a mighty volcanic massif rises above the lake, including three of the country's four active volcanoes: Ruapehu, Tongariro and Ngauruhoe.

Ruapehu, the tallest of them, reaches a height of almost two thousand eight hundred meters. It is the highest peak of the North Island. It is famous for its activity, erupting on average once every half a century and this justifies its name, which means in translation "Thundering Abyss" In the Ruapehu crater there is a hot lake, which disappears before the volcanic eruptions, and then revives again. The last outbursts of Ruapehu activity were recorded in 1945 and 1995.

The shores of the hot lake are bordered by snowfields and glaciers, which also exist only in between eruptions.

However, the most active of the New Zealand volcanoes is not Ruapehu, but its neighbor, Ngauruhoe, which is half a kilometer lower than its older brother. Clouds of steam constantly swirl above it, and often ash emissions and outpourings of small portions of lava occur. However, it happens that Ngauruhoe rages in earnest, and then red-hot boulders the size of a truck fly out of the crater.

The quietest of all the oldest of the three volcanoes is Tongariro. It is also the lowest of the "mighty three": its height is less than two kilometers. The last eruption Tongariro happened in 1896. The top of the ancient volcano is riddled with traces of past eruptions and is a whole labyrinth of destroyed craters. Only in one place on the northern slope do hot springs of Ketetakhi gush, recalling the turbulent past of a volcano that has not yet cooled down completely.

Maori believed Ruapehu sacred mountain, and in its vicinity it was not allowed to cut wood, nor fish, nor hunt. And in 1887, the leader of the Maori tribe Ngati-Tuharetoa Te Heuheu Tukino presented the sacred land as a gift to the nation and it became the nucleus of the first in New Zealand and one of the first in the world National parks, named Tongariro.

In addition to three volcanoes, in Tongariro Park, the traveler will see a huge forest area, almost unchanged by man.On the only highway, you can drive through beautiful subtropical forests, completely unlike European, African or South American ones. No tree here is known in other parts of the world. Rimu coniferous tree, deciduous miro, totara, matai rise among the impassable thickets of tree and herbaceous ferns. The abundance of aerial roots and flowers growing right on tree trunks is striking.

Beech forests begin from a height of eight hundred meters, rising to a level of one and a half kilometers. And above there are meadows, on which flowers and herbs completely unfamiliar to us also grow. But after a hundred meters they are replaced by eternal snows.

The main miracle of these unusual forests- the bird world. There are so many outlandish birds here! White-eyed and fan-tailed pigeon, red-fronted parrot and New Zealand falcon, and, of course, the main attraction of the New Zealand bird world - kiwi. This unusual, brownish-colored, nocturnal secretive bird the size of a chicken is rather similar to some kind of animal. Due to the narrow and long shaggy feathers, it seems that it is covered with wool. The kiwi sleeps, leaning on its long beak, like on a third leg. Once a year, the female lays one huge egg, three times more than a chicken egg and weighing half a kilogram, after which she provides further care for it to the male.

Kiwis are not the only flightless birds in New Zealand. There are as many as thirty types of them, and many of them surprise with their unusual habits or appearance. Among these feathered pedestrians are the owl parrot that lives in burrows on the ground, the ueki shepherd boy, and others. Unfortunately, the giant moa birds that were three meters high and four hundred kilograms in weight, exterminated in the Middle Ages, have not survived to this day.

In Tongariro, there is a beautiful large green nestor parrot and a thuja bird, famous for its amazingly gentle singing. Only a bell bird can argue with her for the beauty of her voice. Tui is so popular in New Zealand that many girls' families call her by her name.

The British, who came to New Zealand in the 19th century, brought and settled in the forests of the North Island a lot of their native European animals and birds. Therefore, in Tongariro you can find the familiar blackbird, finch, partridge or pheasant. There are also deer, chamois and hares, as well as feral pigs. The fact is that the British, mostly avid hunters, arrived on the island and found that there were no mammals at all, except for two species of bats. And then the settlers, overwhelmed by the passion of hunting, decided to fill this gap in the fauna, due to which, as a result, local animals and plants were severely damaged. Even today, the park administration regularly invites hunters, inviting them to shoot deer, pigs and hares that threaten the nature of Tongariro.

The densely populated North Island of New Zealand, where two-thirds of its population lives, has preserved intact forests and volcanoes, geysers and rare birds. Thousands of tourists every day walk the trails of Tongariro, admire the fountains of geysers in Rotorua and bathe in the hot pools of the Wairakei Valley. There is no other country on our planet where National parks, reserves and other protected areas would occupy such a huge area - almost a fifth of the country. But the most popular among them were the unique corners of nature on the Volcanic Plateau among New Zealanders and guests of the country, and first of all - an amazing miracle created by formidable underground forces on the outskirts of the Maori village of Vakarevareva, in amazing valley geysers of Rotorua.

Fiordland

The extreme southwest of the South Island of New Zealand has long been called Fiordland - the Land of Fjords. The nature here is strikingly different from the hilly plateaus of the North Island, over which only in some places low cones of young volcanoes rise. South Island - predominantly Mountain country, the backbone of which is the mighty chain of the Southern Alps, raising its snowy peaks to almost four kilometers in height.

A huge glacier that once covered this area carved deep trough-like gorges in the slopes of the ridge, in which a dozen long narrow lakes and at least thirty deep fjord bays were formed, which gave the name to this picturesque corner of the country.

Nature has generously endowed New Zealand with beauty, but the scenery of Fiordland is the most beautiful thing that can be seen in this fabulous land, and perhaps on our entire planet.

A traveler who has got here at the first moment is speechless when the motor ship enters a calm bay surrounded by kilometer-long walls of rocks and heads into the interior of the island, where the snow on the slopes of the Southern Alps is whitening.

And the farther the ship sails, the longer you get to know the amazing and diverse nature of Fiordland, the more you are amazed by the magical beauty of the surrounding places. And it is difficult to decide what is the most picturesque, most interesting, most majestic and most exciting in this wild and deserted country: bays or mountains, forests or waterfalls, lakes or glaciers, rare, endangered birds or the longest mosses in the world ...

Descending from the mountains twenty thousand years ago, giant glacial tongues cut through the rocky shores of the South Island winding fjords that sometimes go fifty kilometers into the depths, into which three hundred meter waterfalls rush down from steep cliffs. And located in the vicinity of the Milford Sound fjord, Sutherland Falls, whose height reaches almost six hundred meters, is one of the five highest on our planet.

New Zealand's bays compare favorably with the equally beautiful fjords of Norway or southern Chile by the complete absence of traces of human activity. Their shores go into the water so steeply that it is not easy to find a place on them not only for a village, but also just for a tourist tent. The second characteristic feature of Fiordland is the unusually close proximity of its coastal forests to mountain glaciers.

Nowhere else on Earth do rivers of ice descend directly to the edge of humid evergreen forests. The combination of a bluish, half-kilometer-thick glacier riddled with cracks with thickets of myrtle, southern beech and laurel bordering its foot amazes everyone who sees it for the first time.

Meanwhile, the seeming implausibility of this picture is easy to explain. Due to the steepness of the western "facade" of the Southern Alps, New Zealand glaciers move much faster than their counterparts anywhere in the Pyrenees or the Himalayas. Some of them, for example the Tasman glacier, move down half a meter every day. Before melting, the tongue of the glacier manages to descend sometimes to a height of three hundred meters above sea level. And the upper border of forests at this latitude reaches thousands of meters. As a result, ice and rainforests meet each other, ignoring "intermediaries" like alpine meadows or mountain tundra.

Even more beautiful are the numerous mountain lakes of the Southern Alps. Narrow, extended and compressed by rocky slopes, rising one and a half to two kilometers above their blue waters, they are somewhat reminiscent of the reservoirs of the Taimyr Putorana plateau in Siberia. But, of course, the forests surrounding the Te-Anau, Waikatipu, Huanaka, Ohau or Rakaia lakes are immeasurably richer, thicker, higher and more luxurious than the Putorana larch woodlands.

The valleys in the depths mountainous areas practically not inhabited. In many places in the Fiordland, no human has ever set foot. And each new expedition opens here previously unknown peaks, waterfalls, lakes and passes.

Lake Waikatipu, the longest lake in New Zealand, stretches from northwest to southeast for almost a hundred kilometers, cutting through the ridge in a blue transverse zigzag. Its depth reaches four hundred meters. So many rivers flow into Waikatipu, due to the lack of a population that did not have local names that the surveyors chose not to exercise their imagination, but to designate them on the map simply by serial numbers: from First to Twenty-Fifth.

A mysterious natural phenomenon is associated with this lake, the explanation of which has not yet been found by science. The water in it rises by seven and a half centimeters every five minutes, then drops to the previous level. The lake breathes, as it were. New Zealanders love to say that the heart of the South Island beats under the waters of Waikatipu.

And here is how the ancient Maori legend explains the mystery of Lake Waikatipu: “A long time ago,” says it, “the daughter of the leader Manat and the brave young hunter and warrior Matakauri lived in one of the valleys of the island. The young man and the girl fell in love, but trouble happened - the evil giant Matau attacked their village and took Manata into his possessions, far into the depths of the snow-capped mountains. In desperation, the old leader, the girl's father, turned to all the warriors of the tribe, begging them to save his daughter. Whoever saved the girl, he promised to give her to wives.

None of the men dared to engage in a fight with the giant, and only Matakauri ventured into this desperate business. The young daredevil climbed high into the mountains and found a sleeping giant there, and next to him - Manata tied to a tree. Having freed his beloved, he went down with her to the village, but did not stay there with the girl, but returned to the mountains again. After all, it was clear that, having woken up, the evil giant would again descend into the valley and deal with the kidnapper, and carry the girl back.

And Matakauri decided to destroy the giant. While he slept, his head resting on one mountain and his legs on the other two, the young man began to drag armfuls of brushwood, twigs and logs from the forest and put them around the sleeping giant. Matakauri worked for many days and nights. Then, rubbing two pieces of wood together, he made a fire and lit the fire. The giant was engulfed in flames, and the smoke covered the sun. The heat from the huge fire was so intense that the flames burned the ground. A giant depression was formed, resembling the outlines of the body of a giant. Rains and mountain rivers filled it with water and turned it into a lake, which people called Waikatipu. And only the giant's heart did not burn. It lies deep at the bottom of the lake and still beats. And with each blow, the lake waters rise and fall ... "

Over the past decades, so many rare birds have been found in the remote corners of the Land of Fjords that the authorities of the country decided to create a national park in this part of the island with an area of ​​one million two thousand hectares! (Its territory is larger than the territory of Lebanon or Cyprus.) In the forests of Fiordland Park, you can find the rarest owl parrot-kakapo that lives in earthen burrows and feeds on snails and worms, or a huge and unusual in its habits kea parrot-predator, capable, like the African vulture, butchering the carcasses of the fallen sheep, leaving only the skeletons of them.

Kea was practically exterminated in other parts of New Zealand, as farmers-pastoralists believed that he could sit on the backs of sheep and pull out pieces of meat directly from live animals, and therefore mercilessly destroyed a beautiful bird, which, incidentally, for the first time, by the way, tasted meat only after the appearance of Europeans ... Indeed, before that, there were no mammals in New Zealand at all, except for bats, and only the English settlers taught the kea to an unusual type of food. The fact is that before the invention of refrigerated vessels, New Zealanders sent only sheep wool to England, and threw away the carcasses. And then around the slaughterhouses there was enough food for a well-fed existence for more than one dozen winged "orderlies". However, most zoologists categorically reject the accusation of attacks on live sheep.

The most beautiful emerald parrot, the vociferous thuja bird and the admittedly best singer of the mountain forests, prosaically called the yellow crow, are also found in the mountain thickets of the Fiordland.

And in 1948, on the shores of Lake Te Anau, amateur naturalist Orbell discovered the long-extinct bird Takahe, which became the largest ornithological discovery of the 20th century. Takahe is a flightless bird about the size of a large goose. It is distinguished by bright, beautiful plumage, strong legs and a short thick beak of bright red color. Once upon a time, before the arrival of Europeans, there were so many takahe on the South Island that all West Coast the Maori were called "the place where the takahe live".

For immigrants from England, the game, unable to fly away, became an easy prey, and already in late XIX For centuries, hunters have ceased to meet takahe. It was believed that they were completely exterminated, but after more than half a century it turned out that several pairs of unique birds found refuge on the shores of the hard-to-reach mountain lake... Now the area of ​​their habitat is under strict protection, and a rare species of birds seems to be saved from death.

Some optimistic zoologists believe that in the inaccessible corners of the Fiordland, the gigantic moa birds, three-meter giants of the New Zealand fauna, could have survived to this day. Having disappeared several centuries ago, they were the largest birds on Earth, along with the now extinct inhabitant of Madagascar - the giant epyornis ostrich. Alas, the hopes of the optimists are most likely unfounded. No traces of moa have yet been found.

And on the highways of the southern part of the island, you can often see an unusual road sign depicting a penguin enclosed in a red circle. This is how the road service warns about the crossing points of yellow-eyed penguins - small cute birds, completely unlike their polar counterparts in a way of life. They make their nests in the forest, several kilometers from the coast, and every day they leisurely walk to the sea, where they get food for themselves and their offspring.

From the southernmost in New Zealand big city Dunedin Fjordland can be reached both by land and sea. In the most popular of the Fiordland bays, Milford Sound, a narrow road leads from Lake Waikatipu along an amazing gorge. New Zealanders have nicknamed this path the "Trail of Miracles". The lake itself, steeped in legends, is connected with the inhabited areas of the east coast by an old path, once laid by gold diggers. At one time, Waikatipu went through a period of "gold rush", when on its banks, like mushrooms, tent camps and gold mines. But the reserves of the precious metal soon ran out, and now only this old road reminds of the old days.

It is no less interesting, and even more accessible for a tourist unprepared for mountain hikes, to travel along the fjords on a motor ship. Such a voyage will allow, regardless of the weather (which is abundant in rain and fog), to enjoy the fantastic landscapes of the Land of the Fjords and, in particular, to visit the Dusky Sound Bay hidden behind the mountainous Resolution Island, where the Cook expedition camp, which made the first map of the coast, was located more than two centuries ago. Fiordland He also named the island after his ship "Resolution" and the island, which closes the hospitable and picturesque bay from autumn storms.

And a hundred miles to the north, the main attraction of Fiordland, the famous Milford Sound, cuts forty kilometers into the depths of the coast. And when the ship passes the Miter mountain guarding the entrance to it, which has raised its peak one thousand seven hundred meters above the sea, and is surrounded by steep wooded slopes of the coastal ridges, the traveler begins to think that he is swimming in a fairy tale. Now the blue, now the emerald waters of the fjord do not stir not the slightest breeze. From the green thickets, the gentle voice of a thuja bird can be heard. Ahead, at the turn of the bay, a long foamy ribbon of the waterfall is silvery, and even further, in the very depths, the snowy peaks of the Humboldt Mountains rise, behind which lies the mysterious and alluring Lake Waikatipu.

At the foot of the mountains is the only settlement on the entire coast. National park- the tourist base Milford Sound, from where the scenic trail will lead the traveler to the amazing and grandiose natural wonder of the Southern Alps - the crazy jump of the mighty river from the black cliff, called the Sutherland Falls.

From it, a simple pass takes the tourist to the shores of a spacious and deep lake Te Anau, home to the clumsy red-billed takahe - fortunately undying pearl of the bird kingdom. The further path will lead to the "Trail of Miracles", which runs slightly to the north, along which you can return to Milford Sound.

But the impression of the South Island will be incomplete if you do not continue the journey beyond the northern border of Fiordland - to the Westland fjords, located at the foot of New Zealand's highest peak, Mount Cook. The stunning landscape seen here can be roughly described as a Swiss view of Mont Blanc with the Norwegian seaside landscape in the foreground. This is a real symphony of shapes and colors of the sea, jungle, snow, ice and stone.

Of course, you can truly feel the enchanting and even piercing beauty of this mountain landscape only by walking along the steep slopes and ice of the Southern Alps.In addition, a breathtaking journey along the bluish-white slopes of the Franz Josef Glacier, reaching almost six hundred meters in thickness, will make the traveler to experience a lot of thrills when crossing cracks on snow bridges and descending from almost sheer icefalls.

The exit from the ice zone to the sea through foggy moist forests, overgrown with mosses reaching to the waist and voiced by ringing bird songs, will become an effective final chord in this journey, full of vivid impressions, amazing contrasts and unforgettable landscapes, to the opposite side of the world from Moscow, to the most beautiful corner. Oceania is the New Zealand Fiordland.

Islands of Hawaii and Maui

More than half of the entire territory of the Hawaiian archipelago falls on the share of its largest island - Hawaii. It is often called the "Island of Volcanoes", and there is every reason for this, since Hawaii has spawned as many as five fire-breathing mountains, merged into a single massif. Its second nickname - "Orchid Island" - Hawaii received for the richness and exotic appearance of tropical vegetation.

And, finally, one more, also well-deserved, name of this blessed piece of land in the vast expanses of the Pacific Ocean - "Island of Dreams". Indeed, few places on our planet will give the traveler such a variety of amazing wonders of living and inanimate nature. Scuba divers will find an astounding wealth of underwater coral thickets here with their unique world fish, algae and shellfish. Surf lovers will enjoy riding the most stunning waves the ocean has to offer. And at the very shore, the crest of the breaking wave is thrown back so that a real bluish-green tunnel is formed - the famous "Banzai pipe" - a unique miracle of Hawaii and a surfer's dream.

The beaches on the island of Hawaii are unusual - they are made up of black sand formed from basalt lavas crushed by the surf. These beaches are especially hot under the hot sun, giving a lot of pleasure to bathers. Wildlife lovers will enjoy even more on the island.

The humid ocean winds blowing here - trade winds - bring abundant rainfall to the eastern slopes of the island, and in combination with the tropical climate create favorable conditions for flora. The coast of the island is covered with amazingly beautiful forests.

The main thing about them is the tree ferns, the most characteristic tree of the archipelago. One of the corners of the Hawaiian National Park is called Fern Jungle. These ancient plants are found in abundance in the forest belt of volcanic mountains, sometimes reaching a height of fifteen meters. Their thick trunks, black and soft like a sponge, rise up in mighty columns, only throwing out a bunch of large feathery leaves at the top. Among the ferns, narrow and tall green candles of araucaria are often found - the only coniferous tree on the island. The valuable sandalwood is not uncommon here, which was ruthlessly cut down earlier because of the fragrant wood that was in high demand. And in some valleys you can see original trees, which have received humorous names from tourists: "Pink splendor" and "Golden splendor". Their trunks are thin, and their branches, decorated with flowers, slope downwards and resemble flower garlands that Hawaiians like to adorn themselves with during the holidays.

All trees are densely braided with vines and dazzled with many orchids and other exotic flowers. Small species of ferns often grow on their branches, creating the impression of large bird nests with their lush green bunches. The delicate malachite carved leaves that form these "nests" are decorated with a network of marvelous purple veins. The ground is almost invisible: it is covered with a solid carpet of grass and fluffy moss.

The abundance of moisture, by the way, favors not only the development of flora. The island of Hawaii is also famous for the many waterfalls that rush from the slopes of volcanoes right into the sea and look like sparkling silver ribbons from the deck of the ship, enlivening the monochromatic green cover of the slopes. The highest of them - Akaka Falls - falls from a height of one hundred and forty meters!

In the forests of the Hawaiian Islands, you can walk without fear, since there are no large or small predators in them. There are also no snakes, no leeches, no mosquitoes and mosquitoes that poison the life of travelers in tropical regions. The fauna of the archipelago is generally not rich in species. But on the other hand, most of the local inhabitants are found only on these islands. These are mainly rare birds, such as the Hawaiian goose, miraculously rescued from complete extermination, or the tiny Hawaiian flower girl, hovering over orchids, like Latin American hummingbirds, and deftly extracting nectar from flowers with her slender curved beak.

However, the main reason why tourists come to Hawaii not only from Honolulu, the capital of the archipelago, located on the island of Oahu, but also from Australia, Japan and North America- these are its fire-breathing mountains, stunning, incredible, unlike volcanoes in other parts of the world.

Of the five volcanoes, the islands two - Mauna Kea and Kohala - have long been quiet and do not show their once violent temper in any way. Mauna Kea, the highest mountain in Oceania, reaches a height of four thousand two hundred meters above sea level. Its gently sloping summit is almost always crowned with a snow cap, for which the mountain got its name. (Mauna Kea is Polynesian for "White Mountain".)

Another volcano of the island, Hualalai, was also considered extinct, but in 1801 it suddenly revived for a short while, as if warning that it was too early to write it off, after which it calmed down again and slept for two centuries.

But the two remaining "windows into the depths" - the volcanoes Mauna Loa and Kilauea - more than compensate for the sleepiness and sluggish character of their fellows. You will not find a more active volcanic pair anywhere else on the globe. Mauna Loa erupts on average once every three and a half years, and Kilauea even more often. Over the past ten years, there have been fifty of its eruptions, and once it raged without ceasing for two and a half years.

Mauna Loa is only forty meters lower than Mauna Kea, but in terms of volume it is much larger than its neighbor. No wonder its name is translated as " Great mountain". The lava of Hawaiian volcanoes is very liquid and easily spreads to the sides, therefore, its silhouette, Mauna Loa resembles not a tall pointed cone, like Fujiyama or Etna, but rather a gigantic bread loaf. The base of this gentle dome at sea level reaches a hundred kilometers in diameter, and at the bottom of the ocean, at a depth of more than six kilometers, its diameter is four hundred kilometers!

Transferred to Europe, Mauna Loa would have occupied all of Switzerland. Strictly speaking, Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea are the highest mountains in the world, since their height, counting from the seabed, exceeds ten kilometers. And the lava that makes up the gigantic colossus of the island of Hawaii would be enough to cover the whole of Canada or China with a layer five meters thick.

The Hawaiian archipelago stretches for three thousand kilometers from the southeast to the northwest in the North Pacific Ocean. Here, in the center of the Pacific lithospheric plate, there is a so-called hot spot, above which magma, penetrating from the upper mantle, erects a volcanic island. The plate itself moves northwestward at a speed of fifteen centimeters per year, and the "hot spot" remains in place. Therefore, the formed volcanic piece of land soon turns out to be away from it, and then the melt emerging from the depths begins to form new island next to him. Thus, over ten million years, a grandiose volcanic ridge was formed, in which the oldest, long-extinct volcanoes "moved" from the "hot spot" for thousands of kilometers, and the youngest island - Hawaii - continues to grow today. And its main builder is Mauna Loa.

At the top of this volcano, in a huge crater with an area of ​​ten square kilometers and a depth of two hundred meters, a lava lake is formed during eruptions, the level of which is gradually increasing. Finally, the lava reaches the edges of the crater and flows down like a river of fire. Liquid molten rock flows along the slopes at high speed, sometimes up to fifty kilometers per hour, burning everything in its path and forming on steep ledges fiery waterfalls, stunning imagination, or, more precisely, "lavopads". Often the flow of lava reaches the ocean coast, and then the coast is shrouded in thick clouds of steam, and the island grows slightly due to the formed lava terrace. So, during the eruption of Mauna Loa in 1980, the area of ​​the island of Hawaii increased by two square kilometers.

The height of Kilauea is only one thousand two hundred meters. It is located on the eastern slope of Mauna Loa and was previously considered its side crater. Then it turned out that Kilauea had its own system of channels supplying lava, and the composition of this lava was different from that of Mauna Loa.

For decades, a lake of liquid lava boiled in the main crater of Kilauea, bearing the beautiful Polynesian name Halemaumau, that is, "House of Fire". Sometimes only thirty meters separated the surface of the melt from the edge of the crater. But in 1924 the level of the lake of fire suddenly dropped to a depth of two hundred meters. And its surface was covered with a crust of solidified lava six meters thick, on which one could walk, as if on ice.

Now such walks are the main goal of all arriving in Hawaii. However, they are possible only during breaks between eruptions and only along specially laid paths, otherwise tourists are in danger of returning with burned-out soles (or even not returning at all).

Several times a year, a dull noise is heard in the depths of Kilauea, after which kilometer-long cracks open in the lava crust of the crater lake, snaking in fiery zigzags, like lightning running along the ground. The bowl of the crater is filled with volcanic melt, and fantastic fiery fountains of liquid lava, sometimes up to three hundred meters high, rise above the surface of this burning lake.

Typical of this type of volcanism (volcanologists call it "Hawaiian") was the picture observed during the eruption in 1959 of the side crater of the volcano, which bears the name of Kilauea-Iki ("Little Kilauea"). On November 14, at twenty o'clock, the pressure of compressed gases caused the first explosion, which destroyed the lava crust in the crater. The ridge of the crater, which had been inactive for ninety years, also split in ten places at once. From the cracks and holes formed in the crater, liquid lava gushed like fountains.

When the excess gas pressure subsided, all but two of the holes and cracks closed. From the remaining "windows" lava gushed out, flying up to a height of sixty meters. Then another vent closed. But from the latter, the fountain was now gushing up two hundred meters. By the end of the week, the height of the fountain had reached four hundred meters, after which the ejection of lava stopped.

Twelve days after the first active phase, the next eruption of Kilauea-Ica occurred. This time the fountain rose to a height of more than three hundred meters. In the crater itself, a lava lake with a depth of one hundred and thirty meters was formed.

On November 29, a new roaring column of flame and liquid lava shot up six hundred meters. It was the tallest fountain observed in the entire century of Hawaiian volcano studies.

This mighty surge marked the end of the Kilauea-Ica eruption. The liquid lava of the lake was drawn into the bowels of the fiery whirlpool, and part of it froze, again forming a crust at the bottom of the crater.

Then, along the zone of cracks in the southeast of the island, a new eruption began, accompanied by the outpouring of lava and the formation of lava flows on the slopes of Kilauea. Rushing down, they burned sugarcane plantations on the coast, groves of papaya and oranges, orchids. They fought the rivers of fire, erecting earthen ramparts in their path with bulldozers and deflecting the stream away from the cultivated land.

A chain of small craters stretched along the crack zone, which spewed steam, gases and lava into the air above the vents. Drops of lava, frozen in the air, fell to the ground in the form of long needles, the so-called hair of Pele, named after the Polynesian god of fire.

It is clear that such a spectacle cannot leave anyone indifferent. And, which is very important, it is possible to observe lava fountains and streams of fiery rivers on Kilauea, firstly, quite regularly, and secondly, in a relatively safe environment.

A traveler who finds himself on the island of Hawaii can, if desired, climb to the Kilauea crater even by bus, since there is an asphalt road here. But it is more interesting to climb to the volcano on foot along a trail laid through forests of sandalwood and tree ferns. In just a few hours, you can reach the Kilauea-Iki ridge.

The picture that opens up to the eye is breathtaking. In the distance, steam smokes over the main crater of Halemaumau, and right below your feet is the dark gray surface of the crater lake, cut by scarlet cracks and shrouded in sulfur fumes. The greatness and formidable strength that everything around them breathes defies description. This spectacle is especially impressive at night.
Those travelers who are interested not only in geology should climb the slope of Mauna Loa. The mountain forests are home to many unique birds, and, of course, the aforementioned Hawaiian goose, which by the middle of the 19th century was almost completely exterminated on most of the islands of the archipelago. However, zoologists managed to organize the breeding of rare birds in zoos, and then in the 1960s, they repopulated the slopes of Mauna Loa with them. There are also rare Hawaiian mallard ducks, Hawaiian crows and the only bird of prey on the islands - the Hawaiian buzzard. Occasionally you can also see a tiny and very beautiful honey sucker or Hawaiian flower girls flashing over the meadow like butterflies. All of them are found nowhere else except the Hawaiian archipelago.

Unfortunately, the goats and pigs brought to Hawaii and wild here have caused great damage to the island fauna of birds. Some bird species have disappeared altogether, and only the creation of the National Park made it possible for the rest to survive. Nevertheless, wildlife lovers will find a lot of interesting things in the green thickets that cover the lower part of the giant volcanic massif. And on the coast you can find unique animals such as the Hawaiian monk seal.

So tourists who arrive on the island have something to see and marvel at. However, the enchanting pictures of green tropical paradise and the luxury of ocean beaches cannot, of course, overshadow the impression of the grandiose spectacle of cracks blazing with red lightning, fiery lava falls and fountains of liquid lava soaring to the height of the Ostankino TV tower.

Apparently, this is the only place on Earth where you can look so close and so directly into the bowels of our planet and hear their menacing breath.

And very close to the island of Hawaii, travelers will find another natural pearl of the volcanic archipelago - the amazing island of Maui, steeped in legends.

From wherever you come to this island: from the west, from the island of Molokai, from the east, from the coast of the island of Hawaii, or from the north, from the side open ocean- every time he is met from afar by the mighty silhouette of a majestic mountain structure - the Haleakala crater - rising three kilometers above the island.

It is not easy to climb it - the slopes of the volcano are covered with dense thickets of tropical vegetation and placers of black basalt boulders, so “the ascent will take at least two days. But even those who prefer modern comfort and climb to the top by car along a twisting twenty-kilometer road will remember the moment when the endless bowl of one of the largest volcanic craters in the world suddenly opens under his feet.

Halekaala Crater was discovered in 1778 by the great navigator Cook. He mapped the volcano under its Polynesian name, which means "House of the Sun".

The inhabitants of the Hawaiian Islands tell a legend according to which the god Maui once managed to catch the Sun here, after whom the island is named. It happened, as the legend says, due to the fact that our daylight was in a hurry. It ran across the sky too quickly, and the day was shortened so much that one day the goddess Hinu, Maui's mother, did not even have time to dry the blanket she had woven that morning. Angry at the Sun, she ordered her son to catch him and put an end to the inappropriate haste of the heavenly body.

Maui weaved a rope from the fibers of a coconut tree and hid at the top of the volcano. And as soon as the first rays of the Sun appeared from behind the rocks, he tied them with a rope and caught the luminary. The captive Sun was forced to give his word never again to break the usual pace of movement, and since then the day in Hawaii has no longer shortened. True, the inhabitants of the island of Maui, knowing the impermanence of the gods, made sacrifices to them every year, throwing delicious food and coconuts into the crater. It was believed that those who had tasted the gifts of Maui and Hina would watch the frivolous luminary more closely.

Unlike their blazing hot neighbors: the volcanoes Mauna Loa and Kilauea on neighboring island Hawaii, Haleakala is now considered extinct, although perhaps he just fell asleep for a while. V last time the volcano erupted in 1790. Over the two centuries that have passed since then, at the bottom of a giant crater, whose area reaches fifty square kilometers, forests have grown here and there, and streams have made their way along the slopes, forming a small lake below. Steep basalt cliffs rise almost a kilometer above the bottom of a volcanic depression, like fortified walls.

In the northern part of the crater, in green meadows, locals graze livestock, and in the south-west it is spread sandy deserts, the color of which varies from light beige to dark brown and even crimson red. Among this ominous landscape, here and there, multi-colored cones of secondary volcanoes rise two or three hundred meters above the crimson plain, creating a kind of Martian landscape.

The crater itself is not round, but stretches twelve kilometers from west to east; its width from north to south is four kilometers. Once the volcano was three hundred meters higher, but its top was demolished during the last eruption.

The slopes of Haleakala, unlike most volcanic craters, do not look perfectly regular. They are partially destroyed and cut by deep gorges. In the east and in the north, at the edge of the crater, there are two huge gaps, the "gate" of Kaupo and Kulau. Ocean winds burst into the volcanic depression along these grandiose corridors, bringing clouds and rains.

By the way, thanks to this structure of the crater, you can observe here a curious optical phenomenon described earlier in the German mountains of the Harz - the so-called Brocken ghost. The shadow of a man standing on the edge of the summit is projected in an enlarged view onto the gray veil of clouds filling the crater at his feet, giving the impression that some kind of giant is moving there. At one time in the Harz, such "ghosts" that appeared near Mount Brocken caused superstitious fear among the locals, who believed that witches from all over the area gathered on the mountain for their Sabbath.

In 1960, Haleakala was declared a National Park, and now all the picturesque and unusual corners of the gigantic crater are connected by a network of special paths, along which tourists can get to the most remote places of this amazing closed world and enjoy the spectacle of its many natural wonders.

The traveler will see frozen lava rivers and bluish-purple secondary volcanoes swelling with conical stone wigwams in a giant volcanic bowl. He will be able to admire the iridescent red-brown-black range of shades interspersed with volcanic glass-obsidian in the dark high cliffs, built of gray stratus ash.

And the most important thing is to discover an amazing plant that is found only in the Haleakala crater and bears the poetic name "Silver Blade". This rare botanical miracle resembles a graying silvery porcupine or some kind of ball bristling with sharp long feathers, from the middle of which a thick fleshy trunk-receptacle rises upwards, which is covered once in the life of the plant with a bouquet of purple flowers.

The "Silver Blade" lives only about twenty years, reaching a height of three meters during this time. Then it blooms for a while, striking the audience with its size, colors, and aromas. Then the plant dies, and its narrow, silver-colored saber-shaped leaves, for which it got its name, wither and fall off.

The wild beauty of the landscape from the Haleakala Ridge has inspired artists and writers on more than one occasion. They dedicated many works to the volcano. Among those who visited this natural wonder in the distant Pacific archipelago were such remarkable word painters as Mark Twain and Jack London.

Mark Twain, who visited Maui in 1866, described his ascent of the volcano in a book of memories of the wanderings of his youth. A cheerful company of young cheerful adventure lovers climbed the slopes of Haleakala for two days to reach the top. (Then, after all, there was not only a road to the top, but even a bearable path, not to mention the fact that the first map of the volcano was drawn up three years after their visit.)

After spending the night by the fire (the temperature drops by fifteen degrees when climbing the volcano), the frozen travelers finally got to the edge of the crater and stood for a long time, shocked by the view. Then young enthusiasm leaped in their veins, and to keep warm, they began to roll up to the cliff and throw down hefty basalt blocks the size of a barrel of whiskey. Having spread out in this way and showing their prowess to the volcano, Mark Twain and his companions set off on their way back.

Now tourists climb to the top along a winding path that runs along green meadows and eucalyptus groves. As a rule, they are not satisfied with the spectacle with the located at the top observation deck Kalahaku, but go down, wanting to leave their traces on the forest paths near the crater lake, and on the volcanic sand of the desert southern regions crater. In addition, of course, it is impossible to leave Haleakal without seeing the legendary "silver blade" with your own eyes.

Many travelers stay in the crater overnight to admire the most impressive sight that Haleakala can present to its guests - the sunrise over the rim of the crater framed by whimsically swirling clouds and black silhouettes of lava outcrops on the ridge.

The rare combination of the severity and beauty of the volcanic landscape of Haleakala leaves no one indifferent. But the witchcraft charm of the "House of the Sun" cannot be conveyed in words - you need to experience it yourself. At one time, this was accurately noted by Jack London, who wrote after returning from the island of Maui: "Haleakala carries a special message to the human soul, a message of such beauty and miraculous power that it is impossible to get it from second hand."

Hawaiian Islands
GEOGRAPHY
The Hawaiian Islands are 24 islands located in the Pacific Ocean between 20 degrees C .. and the Northern Tropic and at a longitude of 160 degrees East. at a fairly decent distance from the United States. They represent the tops of an underwater ocean ridge. So there are many active volcanoes here. The largest islands are Hawaii, Kahulawi, Oahu, Maui, Kauai, Big Island... The most active volcano Kilawi is located on the Big Island.
CLIMATE
It is best to go to Hawaii during the summer season. At this time, the islands are dry and sunny. Those who don't like tropical humidity will love the islands in June, the driest month. However, it must be taken into account that in fact south island, Hawaii, there is always a lot of rainfall. Well, the sea is beautiful here at any time. All year round, the water temperature varies from + 23 ° C to + 28 ° C.
Hawaiian tourism
Tourists often choose to stay on the island of Oahu. after all, it is here that the city of Honolulu, the capital of Hawaii, is located. For visitors, excursions are organized both around the city and around the island. In Honolulu, of particular interest is the Iolani Palace, a monument to King Kamehameha and Queen Liliokalani, China Town, the governor's residence, the Senate. Certainly worth a visit military base Pearl Harbor. The nature of the Hawaiian islands after the shelling and destruction of this place, the United States entered the second world war. And it was in retaliation for the destruction of the Pearl Harbor base that nuclear bombs were dropped on Japanese cities - Hiroshima and Nagasaki. There is also an amazing jewelry factory, where you can trace the entire path of creating unique jewelry from the extraction of coral to the processing of stones and casting of blanks. And if you want to leave something in memory of this place, you can buy jewelry at your local store, where you can find beautiful things made of various metals, pearls, coral and precious stones.
Oahu is the center of Polynesian culture. Tourists are invited to visit seven villages - Tahiti, Tonga, Hawaii, Fiji, Hawaii, New Zealand, the Markes Islands and Samoa. Each village reproduces its part of the culture of Polynesia, delighting visitors with performances in national costumes, incendiary dances, playing on authentic musical instruments.
Vacationers in Hawaii are usually offered a trip to extinct volcanoes. And this is not surprising. After all, in fact, all the islands are volcanoes, active or long extinct. The peaks of these volcanoes look out of the sea and form a chain 3 thousand kilometers long.
To see the most active volcanoes, Kilauea and Manua Loa, you need to go to the island of Hawaii. Manua Loa is the tallest active volcano in the world. Its height is over 4 thousand meters. The islands have all the conditions for observing volcanoes. The extinct giants are strewn with footpaths, tourists are taken to them by buses.
On the active volcanoes, of course, it is better to look from the outside. For this, the Hawaiian Islands have observatories and observation decks... The island of Hawaii has National park Hawaiian volcanoes. From its territory you can observe the Kilauea volcano and the Halemaumau crater. Visitors to the park will see an amazing sight of hot, bubbling lava flowing directly into the ocean. There is also a museum of volcanology.
Ring of fire. Most of such volcanoes are connected with each other by deep trenches, which are formed in those places on the ocean floor, where the earth's crust is advancing on the continent.
The result of such a heap is the emergence of a natural process of friction, which, in turn, causes an increase in the ambient temperature. This invariably leads to the heating of volcanoes, and then to their eruption.
In connection with the above, the question arises: why are volcanoes erupting on the stationary Hawaiian Islands. The answer turns out to be simple. The islands are located directly above the hot spot of the Earth's mantle, which serves as a permanent hotbed of heat. Scientists argue that there are not so few such heat sources on our planet: about 30. All of them are distinguished by immobility and constancy of action. This means that during the movement of the earth's crust, a similar heat source creates several active volcanoes on it.
Volcanoes in Hawaii are not the only ones that have formed in the same way. but also Hawaii itself. In the west of the Pacific Ocean, the earth's crust is gradually shifting westward. At the same time, scientists managed to calculate that the crust has already advanced 2414 km. Hence, one can assume the nature of the Hawaiian Islands. Geologists say that all the islands are ancient extinct and active volcanoes. The oldest in terms of time of occurrence are in the west, and the youngest in the east (the island of Hawaii).
The Hawaii Island Triangle has an area of ​​approximately 19,000 km2. The most high point the island is the summit of Mauna Kea, whose height reaches 4205 m above sea level. She can be considered the most high mountain in the world, since its real height, together with the foot, hiding at a depth of 5998 m, is 10 203 m.
Several telescopes have been installed on Mauna Kea, allowing scientists to observe the movement of stars, planets and various cosmic bodies.