Homeowner taking
lava day by day,
inch by inch

The Big Isle resident lost a house
to lava in 1983, and could know
today if it will hit again

---

By Rod Thompson
rthompson@starbulletin.com

ROYAL GARDENS, Hawaii >> Big Island homeowner Oly Kern expects to know by today whether a lava flow moving through the nearly abandoned Royal Gardens subdivision will spare his house.

The flow oozing through the back yard of his 1-acre lot kept to low ground, bypassed his house and seemed to be coming to a halt yesterday. Kern was hopeful.

But since 1983, when the first lava flows cut through the hillside subdivision and destroyed another house Kern owned, flow after flow has eaten away at the heavily forested, sparsely developed community.

"It's getting close," said Kern, 48, a retired hang-gliding instructor. "It's closing in each time."

As lava flows moved through the region in recent weeks, attention focused on fires caused by a flow to the west of Royal Gardens in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.

Royal Gardens got little attention because it is isolated and nearly empty.

Only six county-approved homes remain there, Kern said. Only two people live there, and they are part-timers. Kern is not one of them, since getting there means crossing three to four miles of recent lava flows with no road, he said.

Kern removed everything valuable from the house long ago.

One who does live there part time and operates a vacation rental house accessible to guests by helicopter is Jack Thompson.

"I ride my motorcycle in and out of there," Thompson said. "It takes an hour to go three miles."

That means standing up on the motorcycle all the way, Kern points out. That's hard on knees.

Another who visited his house recently but does not live in Royal Gardens is Coco Pierson. "This is a two-hour walk," Pierson said.

Pierson takes no comfort from the fact that his house is somewhat distant from the lava at the moment.

"Lava is unlike water," he said. "All lava has to do is get cool enough to solidify. Then it could go up and over (a barrier). Lava can do anything."

Thompson, with his house on high ground, was more confident but added, "I've seen it do some outrageous things."

Kern spoke hopefully but respectfully about his house surviving the Volcano goddess Pele.

"We refer to Pele and that's enough," he said. "People get the indication that you're dealing with it on the spiritual level."