Being a volcanic island a long way from anywhere, we have to import a lot of stuff. But one thing you likely never thought you'd see imported is—lava rock.

Hawaii has lava in abundance. It is our foundation. But Hawaii's lava rock is also mostly dense basalt, extremely hard and heavy. The costs in milling a lava brick are in the labor, not in the material itself.

Which is why Geobunga, the “;hardscapes and accents”; outdoor store on Nimitz Highway—next to Bella Pietra—has imported lava rock for sale. Not just lava rock, but lava rock that has been cut into slabs and pavers and tumbled garden stones. “;We get it in Asia somewhere, and shipped here, and it's cheaper than we can get it locally,”; said Jared Kitaura, Geobunga salesman, warehouser and designer. That translates into savings for Hawaii home-tinkerers who want a lava-rock look.

Geobunga also deals in quartzite slabs, as well as outdoor fixtures, furniture, plants and fountains. But it's the humble lava paver we're looking at today, the worker-bee hunk of rock that supports the wheels of your car or forms garden pathways.

Because the lava comes from factories that are on the metric system, they're sized in centimeters. Those pavers that appear to be a foot square? Actually, 60-by- 60-centimeters.

“;Lava rock is extremely durable, with dozens of uses, and it's not affected by rain or sun, so that's why you see them outdoors,”; said Kitaura.

According to sales and marketing manager Andrew Dedrick, the 3-centimeter thick (that's a bit more than an inch) slabs are by far the most popular. That's thick enough for heavy wear, but thin enough to require a substantial substrate if weight is an issue, like if you're parking cars on it. Generally, a concrete slab is first constructed beneath.

Cement is expensive in large amounts. A concrete-slab pour can cost you $10 or more a square foot. And, as Dedrick points out, every ton of concrete manufactured releases a ton of carbon into the environment. The most economic deal for a driveway or outdoor walkway, generally, uses thicker lava pavers settled into compacted sand.

“;We call it value engineering,”; said Dedrick. “;You save money, do so in an environmentally safe manner, and you wind up with something that has better aesthetics. Win, win, win.”;

How much money? Kitaura runs some figures in his head as we posit a 20-by 20-foot suburban driveway. That's 400 square feet. A standard cement pour can easily run you more than $5,000. Using 6-centimeter-thick pavers atop a sand base, and depending on whether you use professionals to place the pavers or you build the jigsaw puzzle yourself, the cost is $6 to $7 a square foot, or roughly half that of a concrete pour.

And it can be even less. Dedrick says many homeowners place the pavers with space around them to allow grass to grow, with the net result of a natural-looking driveway with better drainage—and fewer pavers to buy.

The thick “;tumbled”; pavers have soft edges, better for spaced placement in a natural setting. The thin-sliced slabs are best cemented into place on an already prepared surface. But it's up to you. The lava pavers are small enough to be handled by the average home do-it-yourselfer.

“;And, not being from Hawaii, these rocks don't have any bad juju,”; laughed Kitaura. “;They're good luck!”;