Paradise Helicopter Tour

On Friday we had a bit of a laid back day, did a little sight seeing, shopping and going for a couple of long walks.

However, this morning we did one of those things that you check off on your life’s “bucket list” of things to do. After much discussion and debating the pro’s and con’s, on Thursday we decided what the heck…… let’s do it and we booked a 2 hour helicopter tour of the Big Island for Saturday.

It was amazing and as with a lot of spectacular sights, pictures don’t compare to being there. However, we have this once in a lifetime memory locked in our brains.

Paradise Helicopters was recommended by the Expedia Rep at our condo and we were certainly pleased with our tour. Our pilot was Koji and there is a picture  of us with him by the helicopter at the end.

The only bit of a” bummer” was that Brenda got seated in the middle seat in the back which makes it a little tough to see around those on the window seats. They seat the passengers based on weight distribution, so it is a bit of “luck of the draw” and size.

The weather this morning was about as good as you can expect. You will see some smoggy haze in the pictures and that is from Kilauea erupting.

After take off from Kona International Airport we headed towards the Kona Coffee area and between the volcanoes of Mauna Loa (13, 679 ft.) and Mauna Kea (13, 796 ft.). So, pretty quickly you go from a healthy vegetation growing area to miles of barren lava.

Along the way we passed over lines of steam vents that were either from recent rain water falling into the cracks and boiling on the lava that is deep below the surface or from lava that is directly under the surface.

Currently Kilauea is actually a volcano within a volcano and we were lucky that the weather cleared and we got to see the very active hot lava bubbling and spewing. Koji did a great job in getting both sides of the helicopter to see the active volcano activity. AMAZING !

Then we headed for the ocean and hoped to see lava flowing into the sea. On the way there you pass over an area that was wiped out by the last major eruption in 1983. What you see in this picture is a road through a subdivision that goes to nowhere.

Koji did explain that at times the winds are not favorable and although you know there is a lot of activity down below you can not actually see the lava flowing into the sea. Well we got lucky and could clearly see this happening. You will also see people standing on the solid lava near the ocean cliffs, they hiked in about a mile from a small town that still exists without any local services, etc.

After this we headed toward Hilo where they get +300″ of rain each year so it’s not too long before there is a lots of vegetation, etc.

From Hilo we flew to the Waipi’o Valley where there are waterfalls. Actaully we flew right into the valley and the top of the valley was way above the helicopter.

The average waterfall height is around 1200 ft. You’ll notice they cascade down to the valley floor in three of four falls and each time they create a pool. There is one waterfall that is over  2400 ft however, they have had a bit of a dry spell here so there is no water right now.

After this is we headed through the Waimea Valley and out to the ocean. We then did some spotting for Humpback Whales that are migrating through the area. We were lucky enough to see a Mother and her Baby Calf right beside her. From here it was back to the Kona Airport.

Wow! What a day and what a memory of a lifetime.