Searching for the Elusive Lava Bunny.

My parents left Maui on Monday, which means Eddie and I are now loose on the island with a rental car and no adult supervision. Naturally, we took off and went exploring.

Since everyone had been raving about the lava fields toward the south end of the island, we decided that was a good place to start. After all, this is where the elusive lava bunny lurks. A shy creature by nature, this rarely photographed rabbit comes in colors ranging from lightly dusted gray to nearly black. I guess you could say they come in fifty shades of gray, minus the thinly-veiled plagiarism and bad BDSM.

They're ridiculously hard to find, owing mostly to that evolutionary imperative called "survival."  With numerous natural and unnatural predators, it's a miracle the lava bunny hasn't gone extinct. It's bad enough they have to deal with the creatures nature saw fit to plant in the lava bunny's habitat: the basalt lizard, the obsidian weasel, and the pumice lion. Then they have non-native dangers such as car tires and sugar cane bats, the latter of which were introduced to the island some years ago to eat rats. 

So basically, the lava bunny is screwed, and will probably die out before long. Naturally, this means we need to find them and photograph them to prove we've seen them. Pics or it didn't happen, after all.

So, in the glorious Minivan O' Destiny that the rental agency saw fit to give us, we drove south to the lava fields.

 

 BEHOLD! The fields:

 The search began in earnest.

Well, when we weren't distracted by trying to take pictures of waves:

 

 Some say you can find the lava bunnies in the water. After all, it's a safe refuge from the water-fearing pumice lions and the persnickety obsidian weasels.

 Not such a great escape from magma sharks, though. I mean, unless they stay in shallow water, but then they're sort of screwed by the basalt lizards. So we looked in the moderately deep water...

Ooh, more waves!

Wait. Um. Where was I? 

Oh yes. Water. Lava bunnies. Searching.

No bunnies here, I'm afraid. Back to the fields so we can--

WAVES!

Er, I mean, fields. Back to the fields.

 We knelt and inspected the ground, hoping to find some clues. Maybe signs of a recent hop-by. Perhaps some nibbled foliage, even some lava droppings.

 Nothing. Not one little lava bunny turd. Dammit.

Interesting bit of trivia, though: When walking on basalt, it sounds like you're walking on Cap'n Crunch.

Traipsing along the Cap'n Crunch-sounding basalt, we discovered the path upon which the basalt lizards migrate. Though it seemed a long shot, since basalt lizards frequent this little thoroughfare, we followed it anyway in hopes of finding some lava bunnies.

Still nothing. *le sigh* We came all this way, endured the hardships of being on this godforsaken island, and not one scrap of evidence of a lava bunny. Such a waste. Such a pity. Such--

WAIT. OMG.

THERE IT IS! ON TOP OF THAT ROCK!

*SNAP*

*checks preview screen*

Man, these things are fast.  I had it, I saw it, it was RIGHT THERE, but once I took the picture...

It was gone.

 The search continues. One day, we will find you, lava bunny.

One day...