Waimea Canyon, Kauai

Aloha. This next blog chronicles our next road trip up the West side of the island to Waimea Canyon.

We set out on a cloudy day and drove at a leisurely pace along the coast until we saw the sign to Waimea Canyon so we turned off the main road and up we went.

The canyon does have many branches and this is what we saw from the main road



A little cloudy....





How's that for a cabbage leaf?







National Guard radar dome.....why would someone take video of themselves walking? We saw a lot of selfie sticks being used on our holidays.



Shades of NZ!! Narrow and winding road up to the canyon lookout.

All her attention is on her driving....thankfully
We made it back down okay and headed back to the hotel. The next day we were up early for our helicopter tour of the canyon.


Naomi says this flower is called the Bird of Paradise 


A good shot of our pilot Katie from the back. I tried some backseat piloting but she turned off my intercom






We are heading into the waterfalls that was seen in the first Jurassic Park movie

We have just landed. Island Helicopters has the exclusive right to land at this site.

From the landing site looking back at the way we came in. Katie came in low and we twisted and turned coming in.....fantastic flight Katie!! The sky was full of other helicopters doing the tour thing as well.


The steep hillside from the landing pad

The path to the falls. The only way in is by a narrow footpath or by air. The Jurassic production team brought everything in and out by helicopter

400 ft falls

One of the other couples on our tour. Lars and his wife (sorry guys, I can't remember her name) from the UK. Lars recently retired from the Royal Airforce and stands about 6 ft 7 inches. They got to sit up front as there was more headroom. He did say he would try and send us some Go pro video of our flight.



We are wearing OR booties to make sure we do not introduce any non-native plants into the area

Lifting off. Someone said that the family who owned the land were given 15 million for the filming rights. They originally had a concrete berm and water chute at the base of the falls to conduct water down to their sugarcane mill.


You can see some of the berm in this shot. The movie production team built a temporary landing pad on this berm for the movie....all materials brought in by air

Going over the top of the falls and following the river back to it's source





Katie just kept taking us higher and higher 








Beautiful landscape but we all agreed it would really mess up your day if you went down in this terrain

Lars and I are wondering the same thing....how long are the rotor blades? That rock wall seems darn Close!


Some of the very narrow canyons that we flew into

Still going up!








Yes, those rock walls are very Close!

Looking UP thru the cabin roof 


All these shots are from the helicopter. We just kept climbing and climbing following the river back to it's source


And the ground is very Close!


Lars was so tall he had to duck his head just to look out the window

Katie! Both hands on the controls please!

How could you even climb out of these canyons? Katie did say some of these places have never been accessed on foot as it is so hard to get to

Remember the National Guard radar dome from our drive up the day before?

Out over the coast now

Some beaches accessible by boat only

Katie called this spot the "Cathedral"

See that canyon ahead of us?.....yes we are going in there.

Thick vegetation on the one hill side




Very tight! Katie hovered and let the helicopter swivel about it's axis to head back out



Very close. I think I saw an earthworm crawling on a rock!

This is the View looking almost straight up through the sunroof


Now we are pointing the opposite way back to the coast


The black and white rock you see is ancient lava that flowed into a crack and hardened and over the centuries the surrounding rock and dirt substrate eroded away with this narrow slice of lava rock now out in the open 


Almost a 1000ft drop here

Back out over the water


The beach to the bottom right is where 13 yr old Bethany Hamilton had her arm bitten off by a tiger shark about 12 yrs ago. It is also Hunalei Beach that we were at the day before


Now Katie is taking us to the Wall of Tears








I enlarged this shot to see if you could spot the other helicopter. Absolutely immense rock wall ahead of us

Approaching the Wall at a lower altitude. We had to let the other helicopter exit above us.


The Wall of Tears ahead of us





To give you perspective that bare rock area is the Wall of Tears and it is over 400 ft from the overhang down to the base

Heading back out of the canyon

Waterfalls every where. According to Google this area is the 8th wettest spot on the planet in terms of annual rainfall



Approaching the airfield. Taro fields are below. Taro is what our Tapioca comes from

NO KATIE!! Take our picture AFTER we have landed!! Now turn around and fly please!


All is well. Saying goodbye to our incredible pilot Katie



We finished up the day golfing 18 holes then back to the hotel to pack. We heading to Maui in the am

Saying goodbye to the Koi at the hotel lobby

This brings to a close our time in Kauai. We are hoping to just relax by the pool and take it easy for a few days. Lorne Hall and family are coming in to Kauai on the 9th and we hope to meet up with them.

This has been a long blog so I will leave you with this message.

Bye for now

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Wrecks of Truk

Image
 It is now 0400 hrs on Feb 5 in the Singapore Airport and we are waiting for our next leg to Sydney Australia. Travel Hint: Avoid Manila airport if you can! It is very busy and once inside the Departure terminal there is no place to get food or drink. We found a place to sit and we sat there for almost 12 hours! Now stepping back a bit to Chuuk Lagoon. The area was controlled by different nations over the years. When Germany had the area pre WW1 they could not pronounce the "chook" sound so they started calling it "truck" lagoon and the name stuck until after WW2 when the territory became under the control of the US. During WW2 the Japanese used the lagoon anchorage for their South Pacific combined fleet. They had built a submarine base and a seaplane base, which incidently, is where we stayed at; the Blue Lagoon Resort. You can still see some old concrete structures on the beach and grounds. From this safe anchorage, the Japanese were able to control most of
Read more

A Fijian Standoff!

Image
Hello all! It is Monday night Feb 19 and we have just got back to our bure from dinner. Naomi was glad that she finally able to unpack her suitcase completely as our bure had more than enough room to store everything. She got to wear some different dresses and shoes with heels for dinner.  Here now are a few pics of the Neviti Resort grounds and one of front lobby taken from the computer station. Now to explain today's blog title..A Fijian Standoff..? It appears that we may have a plague of toads in the area. They appear at dusk and are all over the resort grounds. Unlike our toads in our native Canada, these toads stand up tall and erect and seem to be trying to stare down anybody who approaches them. Hence, in Naomi's view, the Fijian Standoff. Any guesses as to who has to lead the way and clear the path?  The local Fijiians say that the toads have only one main predator and that is the Mongoose, who normally prey on snakes. Naomi is
Read more

Pearl Harbor

Image
Hello again. The next tour we did was to Pearl Harbor. We got picked up at our hotel in a very nice 24 seat van with Charlie as our driver. He did give us some historical background of the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. It was a sunny Sunday morning on December 7, 1941. People, military and civilians alike,  were just starting their day, some getting ready for church and others were getting ready for a football match between 2 of the ships sitting at Battleship Row. Charlie told us of one gunner who answered the call "All hands to Combat Stations" wearing his football helmet! The Pearl Harbor site includes the museum and visitor and information center with the Arizona Memorial monument across the harbor at Battleship Row on Ford Island. The ship, USS Missouri, is also moored there as a static display. The whole area is still an active military site so no bags, purses or backpacks are allowed so they have to be stored in lockers at the info center prior to entry. Pictu
Read more