Postcard from Hawaii - VI

We chose Blue Hawaii for our helicopter tour. Good choice!

Up, up and away! It's a little expensive, but when you go to Hawaii, one of your splurge items should be a helicopter tour. You'll get a bird's eye view of some of the most beautiful scenery in the world! On the island of Hawaii, you'll see volcanoes, flowing lava, gorgeous coastline, rain forest, and waterfalls there is no other way to see. Plan to take lots of pictures and plenty of video because it will be a memory for a lifetime. A word of caution - even if you think you don't need it, take your motion sickness medicine!

Almost ready for takeoff

Youngest-daughter a little nervous as this was her first
helicopter flight, but ready to go!

Coastline of cooled lava. You can see under the water where
the lava flowed into the ocean and over time is adding
land making the island bigger.

Greenery is coming back in an old lava field.

Recent lava field which reached the ocean. You can see how
thick the lava was!

Active lava flow. The lava stream looks small from this height,
but it was actually rather large.

Double waterfall. This is on private property and the only way
to see it is from the air.

I want to live here!

Back safe on the ground. It was a rush!

Postcard from Hawaii - V

Honu'apo Bay along the southeastern coast. There are Fish Ponds
here that have been fished by Hawaiians for hundreds of years.

Day 7 in Paradise and Day 3 on "The Big Island" is the 4th of July, time for America to celebrate freedom and for us to take a leisurely road trip along the coast on Highway 11 to the most southern tip of the U.S.

Youngest-daughter overlooking Honu'apo Bay.

The Mamma-woman and Youngest-daughter at the Punalu'u
Bakery in the town of Na'alehu. This is the most southern
bake shop in the United States. Stopped here for lunch and
snacks for later. Yummy!



When we came out of the bakery, a 4th of July Parade had
started so we took our sandwiches and ate lunch sitting
on the street curb while enjoying the festivities. 

Small-town USA was on display and a thoroughly good
time was had by one and all!

Along the rugged southern coast

Waiahukini Park near the southern tip of Hawaii. Note the
cars on top to judge how high these cliffs are. That's
a long ways from the top to the water!



Waiahukini Park. Older teenagers were jumping from the cliffs
past the rocks and into the water far, far below. This girl wanted
to get even higher so she jumped off a wooden pulley casing.
We saw her back up and doing it again later. Hope she lives
to tell her grand-kids about this during her old age!

In 1866, Mark Twain spent 3 months living on this island. He
visited Waiohinu, a small town not much more than a sugar
cane plantation, and planted a Monkey Pod tree at this site.
The original tree died a number of years ago, but a seedling
from that tree was planted on the same spot.

On the way back "home," we stopped at the famous Punalu'u
Black Sand Beach Park, one of the most famous black
sand beaches in Hawaii.

The picturesque Punalu'u Beach

We were lucky to be in the right place at the right time and
were privileged to see 2 nesting Honu (Hawaiian Green Sea
turtles). Adult males live their lives in the ocean, but
females, like these, come back to the same beach where they
were born to lay their eggs every other year. Babies will eat
jelly fish and other small invertebrates, but the adults
are vegetarians. Weighing around 400 - 500 pounds, they
are 2nd in size only to Leatherback turtles.  

Time to wrap up another fantastic day in Paradise.
Aloha y'all!