Helicopter Tour of the Island

On Wednesday, we toured the island via helicopter.  We have done this on Maui as well and it really is an amazing way to get a better feel for the island. Kauai is smaller than Maui so on these flights you are able to see most of the island in less than an hour.

Our pilot, Craig, was excellent, giving us some good information about the island but not overwhelming us too much.  He gave us an ultra-smooth ride in superb comfort.  As I've stated before, helicopters really are the most amazing form of transportation I've ever experienced.  The ride itself is so smooth and allows for slower enjoyment of the landscape and you are able to be so much closer to the ground to really see things.

As you can imagine, it is a bit difficult to take good photographs through the windows of the chopper but I managed to get a few decent shots:

Scenes from the movie The Descendants (George Clooney film) were filmed on the property shown below:

One of a million waterfalls seen on the flight:

Napali Coast on the north shore of Kauai:

Spectacular, steep cliffs were everywhere:

We even saw wild goats on these steep cliffs as we flew up one of the valleys:

Just after seeing the goats, we managed to spy some humpback whales in the ocean too.

Below is a view of Hanalei bay on the north shore:

Wailua Falls near Lihue:

The pose after the flight: