The Balyeat Wolny Family

Hawaii '17: More Valleys and Waterfalls

We explored a few more valleys with crazy high waterfalls. It was beautiful. The helicopter has a 'soundtrack' of music that plays when people aren't talking. Some of the songs are really well timed. They played an Enya song at the waterfalls, which I thought was kind of funny to be playing Celtic music while hovering over Hawaiian waterfalls. But it set a good mood, nonetheless.

Hawaii '17: Waipi'o Valley From Above

Waipi'o Valley is, I think, the largest valley on the island. Back in the day, it was the most populous place on the island, where the king lived. They said there may have been up to 5,000 people living in the valley hundreds of years ago. Today there are about 50 families.

Hawaii '17: Hilo and All the Green

After the volcano action, we flew over to Hilo's airport to stop for a refuel. Hilo is the wettest city in the US, averaging about 130" a year. And it's actually not the rainiest place on the island, a spot just north west of Hilo gets like 240" of rain a year. Thanks to the northeasterly tradewinds and Mauna Loa and Mauna Kea, the east side of the island gets 100+ inches of rain a year, while areas north of Kona get 10-20" of rain a year. So we were really, really lucky to get a clear day to fly over Hilo and the east side of the island.

Macadamia farms with pine tree wind breaks

The surf was very calm that day, too. The pilot said it's usually pretty choppy with whitecaps.

These are called gulches, little valleys created by the volcanoes. On the east side they are very green. On the west side, they are very black.

We drove on the road through this one later in the week.

Hawaii '17: Mauna Kea, Above the Cloud

Some fly by of the summit of Mauna Kea. It was almost always above clouds, so you had to get above the clouds to see it. If you look very closely, you can see a few of the observatories at the top. (more on that to come!)

Hawaii '17: Kilauea Ocean Entry

Lava tubes carry the Kilauea lava flow out to the ocean, where new land is being made. I didn't get a picture of it, but when the waves receded a little bit, you could see the lava pouring into the ocean. The ocean colors were amazing!

You can see where the road used to be. You can walk most of the road from either side. It's 11 miles round trip from one side and 8 mile round trip from the other side. The only way to see the awesome colors was from the helicopter, though.

Hawaii '17: Pu'u' O 'o

It's pronounced Poo-oo Ohh Ohh. We flew to the south east of the island to see the active lave flow of Kilauea, at Pu'u' O'o'. There were two caldera that were bubbling lava. We circled them several times. The helicopter was sealed up pretty well because we never smelled the sulfur or anything. The only way you can see this lava flow is by air or webcams.

Where the lava goes and doesn't go, is pretty obvious. No rhyme or reason, just does it's own thing.

A lone oasis in the middle of lava fields

Hawaii '17: The Helicopter Ride!

We decided that our one big excursion would be a helicopter ride around the island. We did the extended two hour tour, one hour around the volcanoes and one hour at the valleys and waterfalls on the north east side of the island. As luck would have it, I got the best seat on the helicopter for taking pictures!

Our flight map, starting at Waikoloa heliport

The heliport is north of Kona and nothing but lava fields as far as you can see. It's the aa (ah ah) lava that cools differently that 'regular' lava and looks like chucky rocks and big piles. At first Adam and I thought dump trucks had put some of the piles there, like when clearing an area for construction, but no, that's just the way god made it.

The north west side of the island. Lot's of brown - they only get about 20 inches of rain a year in this part of the island. But you can see the green area in the upper left of the picture - that is where the fancy resorts are and golf courses.