Above It All

When I woke up I knew I wanted a different perspective of Kaua'i, sooo, I took to the air and engaged my bird vision. Bird vision is the best vision for flying high above something, just in case you didn't know that. 

My psycho pilot.

 We left from the air strip at Port Allen on the south shore. We meaning Donna and me, cause my little sister is an island chicken and gets motion sickness when she flies. We took off just before 9am from the Inter-Island Hanger http://www.interislandhelicopters.com/ and started our trip north. Just a few minutes after take off we flew over Waimea Canyon, the Grand Canyon of the Pacific or something like that. 

Waimea Canyon.

The mountains are strictly vertical with little or no slope and the valleys are deep and nearly inaccessible. The canyon is exposed rock with little vegetation, kind of like the main land name sake. The western part of the island is dryer than the north and east; It receives a third as much rain as other areas.

We flew over this one.

Very high fall.

Banking hard.

The interior of the island is where the lushness of the Garden Island is the wettest and most tropically scenic. Mt.Waialeale has the most annual rainfall on earth with 451 inches. There are water falls everywhere in the center part of the island and most people never get to see them unless they take an air tour. The road system is mostly on the coast around the island, with the exception of the road to Waimea Canyon. You can hike into the center island to check out the beauty, but most don't because it would be hellish to climb those hills and if you get hurt it would be near to impossible to get you out in a hurry.

Manawaiopuna falls or Jurassic falls.

Shaka!

Near the end of the tour we encountered what I considered the most famous water fall on the island, the Manawaiopuna falls or the Jurassic water fall from the first movie. It blew me away. I would have loved landing at the base of the falls, but that wasn't part of the tour. Some people can land down there, but not my guide apparently, rats, maybe next time. Shaka y'all!!!