Having escaped the kitsch and commotion that is Waikiki, we find ourselves on the island of Kaua'i and, I must say, this is why you would fly 8,000 miles across ten time zones. It is lush and green - mostly - life is slower, less hectic, and you can fall asleep to the sound of ocean waves washing against the shore. So, last night, we did.
Despite its size, Kaua'i has its isolated, hard to reach spots, which is why it makes an excellent movie set. Jurassic Park was mostly filmed here, and a string of other movies - South Pacific, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Fantasy Island and Avatar, amongst others - used Kaua'i as a backdrop. And so, it seemed sensible to get an overview...
And what better way to do that than a helicopter ride over the island? I did keep that small detail from Ros, as a surprise is often appreciated, but we arrived at the Lihue Airport heliport for our Sunshine Helicopters flight with pilot Greg with no real idea of what lay ahead.
It turns out that Kaua'i is a bit wet, which is like saying that the ocean is big. Mount Wai'ale'ale gets 9,763 mm of rain each year, on average, which is 384 inches, or 32 feet, and is the seventh wettest place on Earth. Luckily, the rain falls mainly away from the plain...
As a result, our flight was a combination of spectacular scenery and rainbows, with huge, jagged sea cliffs formed from ancient volcanic eruptions, massive waves crashing at their feet, waterfalls two thousand feet high, and impenetrable rain forest.
It was worth every cent, and we'll soon have a video of the entire flight to show our friends and family to prove that, yes, we were there.
But I sense that the sea is calling out to me, so, for the time being, aloha!...
