Kauai by Air

One of the things I was looking most forward to on our trip was the helicopter tour. Our guidebook likened taking a helicopter tour on Kauai to "..going to the Sistine Chapel and not looking at the ceiling". I heard similar sentiments from many people who visited, or wrote a book about, Kauai.

It was easily the most expensive tour Mary or I have ever been on, but it was worth it in my mind.

The 60 minute tour left from the main airport in Lihue, and flew clockwise around the island. We flew over Waimea Canyon, also known as the "Grand Canyon of the Pacific", the Na Pali coastline, the 'tunnel of trees' and, because we were blessed with unusually clear weather, the pilot flew us RIGHT INTO the crater of the extinct volcano, Wai'ale'ale'. (Try saying that 3x fast). I never figured out how to pronounce that correctly.

The whole thing was awe-inspiring. The only disappointment was the fact that the cheap replacement rechargables we bought to use if our main camera batteries failed (which they did just before the flight), died after only about 15 minutes or so. Luckily, I had decided to bring along my camcorder.