Kauai vacation
April 26th - Helicopter Tour over the Entire Island
Click on any photo to see a larger image
Okay, I admit that I took a heck of a lot of pictures during the helicopter ride. Melanie took some pictures too, we had both the digital and the film camera going. Honest - I did delete some of the poorer pictures, these are only the best. Sorry if this webpage took a while to load...
We were extremely lucky on the helicopter ride. The helicopter holds 7 people - 3 couples and the pilot. Two couples sit in the back seat, and one couple is on the front bench with the pilot. For some reason, we got to ride up front. I don't know how good the view from the back is, but it is quite nice when you are riding up front! In the crude map at the top of the page you can see the route we took. It takes about an hour to make the loop around the island.
We went with an organization called HeliUSA. It was a good trip, but of course I would have liked to see more - we didn't go as close to the cliffs along the Na Pali shore as I would have liked, and we zoomed right by the Wailua Falls (but there may be some noise reduction ordinance that prevents the flights from hovering over those falls)
After taking off, we flew along the southern coast. Here is an aerial photo of the Tunnel Trees. It is a line of eucalyptus trees that are closely planted on both sides of the road for about a mile. Kinda neat when you drive through it. The horizontal line of trees across the photo is the "tunnel"
These next photos show the falls that we circled a couple of times. The official name is Manawaiopuna Falls, but since the movie Jurassic Park had a scene where a helicopter landed at the base of the falls, they are now unofficially called Jurassic Park Falls. The landing pad shown in the movie does not exist, it had to be specially built (and then later removed) for that shot. The pad had to be rebuilt 3 times before the shot was completed because water kept washing it away. The falls are 360 feet high.
Next we flew over Waimea Canyon. This was a great view, these photos don't compare to the actual magnificence of the canyon. We circled around a couple of times, flying relatively low - down below the canyon rim, and going above the waterfall. The first photo shows the Waimea river emptying out into the Pacific Ocean. The second photo turned out better, I believe you can see the first view point in the extreme upper right corner. The third and fourth photos show some of canyon's spectacular color and size. The fifth photo is a bit blurry, but it shows the entire height of Waipoo Falls.
The helicopter flew from Waimea Canyon to the Na Pali Coast. You can see the long canyons that run out to the sea. The white buildings are a military base.
This is a pretty good photo for showing the sharpness of the volcanic cliffs.
I think these next couple of pictures turned out especially well, I particularly like the first one. The color shows up so nicely. Looks like paradise, doesn't it?
Here are the distinctive sharp edged pinnacles that we saw from ground level on the first day of our vacation, when we took the Kalahula trail. That must be Kee beach in the very lower left corner of the photo.
At this point, we have flown beyond all the Na Pali cliffs, and are now above Haena Beach, and approaching Princeville. I have no idea why the beach looks deserted.
Here is Hanalei Bay. The pilot rattled off a list of celebrities who own resorts in this area, but I forget who they were. This is also a gigantic timeshare condo area, and still growing. You can see the Princeville Resort built into the cliff on the spit of land that sticks out into the ocean on the left side of the picture.
The helicopter has now turned inland. We are flying toward the center peak on the island, which is the wettest place in the world, its annual rainfall is something like 450 inches of rain annually (more than an inch a day!) Clouds are crowded around the peak.
If you click on these pictures, you can see the power line trail in the background. This is the northern end of the trail. I don't know if those waterfalls are visible from the trail, we didn't get to this part of the hike (it is pretty far inland at this point)
The map of Kauai shows two center peaks, Mt Wailaleale and Mt Kawaikini. I believe Mt Wailaleale is the more northernly peak, thus, it is the mountain that is closest in this photo. The big cone in the background must be Mt Kawaikini, the main peak of the ancient volcano.
Here are some photos of waterfalls on the sides of the mountain. Waterfalls are everywhere, which I guess is to be expected surrounding the wettest place on earth.
The center cone is not standing completely, erosion has worn away about one quarter of the cone, so our helicopter flew into that open part of the extinct volcano, and then it spun 360 degrees so we could get a good view of the interior of the peak. That black rock at the base of the first photo is the crater throat. You can see all the water fall channels carved into the rocks from the constant rainfall. Sorry about the poor quality of these pictures, a lot of light seems to have reflected off of the windshield.
I am not sure what mountain this is. At this point, the helicopter has exited the central peak and now is flying south east back toward the Lihue airport
These two shots are looking toward the north eastern corner of the island toward the Makaleha Mountains.
The mountain in the foreground is the Sleeping Giant, which we had just climbed that morning. The Wailua River is visible in the lower right of the second picture. Our hotel is right at the mouth of that river.
We zipped right passed the Wailua Falls without getting close enough to get a good view. I suspect there is some kind of anti-noise ordinance that prevents helicopters from getting too close to this landmark, because when we visited the falls, I didn't see any helicopters circling overhead.
My mom loves pictures of lighthouses. Hey Mom, here is the lighthouse outside of Lihue!"
This is the eastern shore of Kauai.
Sort of a blurry picture, but that is the Radisson. The Aloha Beach Resort is just to the left. We walked along a path along the beach one evening and went passed the Radisson.
That's the main city of Lihue
The Lihue Airport
That is our helicopter taking off after we disembarked. (Ever notice how they say "de-plane" when exiting an airplane? So it is proper to say de-copter when you climb out?
