Day-6 – Helicopter flight over The Big Island

We are up early to make our 7:25 am pickup for our helicopter ride around the island.  We have a sunrise coming up over Mauna Loa.  You can see the volcanic fog or vog as they call it which is the smoke from the volcanic steam vents.

Before the van comes to get us this morning, we head out to the water to see what the waves are doing.  As you can see the seas are pretty rough.  We also find out that the snorkel excursion for the tour has been canceled.  Hope the helicopter is still flying.

As we travel to the helicopter landing pad we pass landscape looking like this. 

We are at the Blue Hawaiian Helicopter tours headquarters.  Each person has to be weighted so they can equalize the load in the helicopters.  Carmen and I are on waiting our turn to get on the ‘copter.  The pilot and two passengers are in the front and four are in the back.

We begin our air tour by heading between Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa.  Look at the terrain below us. 

We have some fantastic views from the helicopter.  Looking at the top portion of the picture you can see that we are flying over the vog. 

Following route 200 we fly over Bradshaw Army Airfield.  There were some helicopters on the heli-pads and a couple could be seen flying away as we approached.

Here are some of the cinder cones that are in the area.  None of these are active at the time and you can see the road meandering around the cinder cones.

Here we see the remains of a collapsed lava tube.  Quite a large tube as we look at the size of it from our height.  According to the instruments we are at an altitude of 1000 feet and doing 95 knots.

We approach the Kilauea Caldera and a great view of the Halema’uma’u crater and have a good view of the flowing lava.  You can see the Jagger observation and museum in the mid left side of the picture and the (now closed) parking and observation area just to the right of the crater.

Flying over the lava vent a couple of times gives us a great view of the lava and the flows coming out of it. 

A closer view of the lava inside the Halema’uma’u crater.

Leaving the Kilauea Caldera we head towards the coast to another crater with a flow.  This vent is (I think) called Pu’u O’o and also has lava that you can see and is at the very edge of the Volcanoes National Park.  The red hot lava is in the small crater hole near the top of the larger caldera.  Also, notice the measuring equipment just to the right of the larger crater in the grassy area.

As we fly over the smaller crater we get our first look at the lava and the small streams running along the floor. 

The pilot of the helicopter has to do figure eights so everyone has at least the same sort of view.  While we were swinging around I get a picture of the floor in the larger caldera.  Wow!  Look at all of the textures.  If this was an oil painting it would sell for big money.

Back to the lava, Carmen was able to get a close-up view of the lava and the floor of this crater.  It looks like the lava is spurting on the left side of the crater with streams moving along the floor heading wherever downhill will take it. 

Our last look at the lava in the crater is on the opposite side of the helicopter, but I was able to stretch (I’m in one of the middle seats) and get a passing shot.  Why can’t we stay here for the rest of the time?  Oh well onward.

We follow the downhill “stream” of lava and come to where the lava, under the crusted lava, is burning the trees and bushes from under the hardened top lava.

We are now flying to Hilo to top off our fuel tank and also a pit stop.  As we begin to approach I get a picture of the speed and altimeter gages and we are flying at 120 knots (or 138 mph) at 1340 feet.  Anyway we fly over a macadamia nut farm.  The larger tree grid is made by the rainbow eucalyptus trees used as a wind break.

We land and after our break we are back in the helicopter again and heading north along the coast heading to the Waipio Valley.  I happen to look out over the Pacific and see a whale spout and get a picture before it goes under and we are gone.

Flying along the coast we were able to get this view.  Not many beaches on this section of the island.  I think we are around the Pepeeko area, a 4 mile scenic route.

Continuing our flight further north along the coast the cliffs gets higher and higher.  At this location you can see where there were several landslides by the bare ground along the cliff face.   

We pass this waterfall on the coast.  So far this is the only waterfall we’ve seen on Hawaii, but I’m hoping that when we get to the Waipio and Waimanu valleys there will be more.

Passing what I think is Waipio Valley.  We go by so quick and on the opposite side of the helicopter where we are, but we still get a fair photo of the valley. 

The cliffs are becoming even higher the further north we go.  I’m hoping that when we reach the Waimanu Valley the walls of the valley will be sharp and steep.  Then I find out this is the entrance to Waimanu Valley and we begin our trip in.

Right away we come upon a waterfall with a drop of hundreds of feet.  Seeing this waterfall has everyone in the helicopter is excited.  It looks to drop into a hole in the ground.

As we fly closer to the waterfall we can see that there are about 4-5 drops into small pools along the fall before ending in a larger pool on the valley floor.  Here is a closer view of the middle falls with two of the ponds.

Flying close to the valley walls we get a close-up look at one of the pools where the waterfall plummets.  Too bad you couldn’t hike to it since this small pool would be great to just soak in and have the water flow around you.

Further into the valley we have another series of waterfalls.  The steepness of the walls creates the steps in the waterfall creating small pools before cascading down to the next pool.  Very dramatic.

There are many waterfalls in this valley.  Another falls to a pool and the riverbed on the valley floor.

The helicopter turns and I get a view of the valley floor and entrance from the sea.

Continuing into the valley we change from one spur to another.  There is a lot of glare on the helicopters windows but you still get the idea of the magnitude.

Nearing the end of the valley we gain altitude to go over the top.  As you can see the grounds above the valley seems to be flat and not the back side of a steep fall like on this side of the valley.

Instead of flying over the sloping land, we are in yet another valley.

This valley has two waterfalls next to each other.  How great is this, volcanoes, steep valleys, waterfalls, and flying in a helicopter, is there a better way to spend the morning?

This time we do leave the valley and are on top heading back to the heliport.  Trees and fields make up this portion of the island which is owned by a ranch.  I think we will be in this section of the island tomorrow when we go on our waterfalls hike.

Back over the sloping pasture lands of the ranch, we can see cows and horses grazing.  Nearing the coast now and will soon be back on the ground.  I wonder if the ravines were old lava tubes that collapsed and have since overgrown with grasses and bushes.

We are near the heliport and as we approach you can see a helicopter beginning to land. 

Before too long we are on the ground and everyone disembarks.  We stayed a little longer to get a picture with the helicopter before heading to the building to wait for the rest of our group for the ride back to the hotel.

On our way back to the hotel we still have some very remarkable views.  Here we have the stark volcanic rock along with grasses and trees.

Back at the hotel we unload our stuff and clean up a little before heading out to dinner.  We are on the second floor overlooking the ocean and guess what comes by our table along the railing?  Hah!  I get my picture of a lizard.  Never thought I’d see a lizard here in Hawaii, probably the one and only.

We haven’t seen many flowers since we have been in the air all day.  So I’ve decided to change that and show some of the nice flowers they have here around the hotel grounds.

This flower group will have many flowers soon.  I think it is possibly a Pua Melia or frangipani, but what do I know of flowers except they look good.

Now this is an interesting flowering tree.  I think someone mentioned that this is a Spathodea campanulata, commonly known as an African tulip tree introduced to Hawaii from Madagascar. 

While we are waiting for the sunset, I get a picture of Carmen next to one of the competition six man canoes. 

And the sun sets on another day in Hawaii.  We would have to go about a mile around the cove to get an unobstructed view of the sunset, but I think it looks better through the palm trees.

This afternoon before we got back another group headed out on an excursion for a view of the stars from Mauna Loa.  I would have loved to have gone but we were in the helicopter and you can’t do both at the same time.  In any case I tried to get a picture of the stars and possibly the Milky Way from the hotel grounds where it was darkest.  Unfortunately, clouds began coming in while I was shooting and then stayed.  Oh well, not everything can go as planned.  That’s Orion on the right.  Tomorrow we go on a hike.