Flyin' High

Sorry I didn't finish this last night...too tired.

Quite a downpour of rain the night before. But that's OK - keep it to the night time and all will be well.

After our usual morning "routine" (roosters, coffee and walk to the beach), we got ready to head down to Lihue for our booked Blue Hawaiian helicopter tour. We met up with Dan and Joanne Clements, and their friends, and had the helicopter to ourselves. We checked in at their office in the town where they weigh us and then tell us where to sit in the chopper. They boarded us in a van and we headed over to the helipads near Lihue Airport, where we watched helicopters taking off and landing. Then along came our helicopter, with our pilot, Jimmy.

Jimmy has flown planes, and then flew helicopters in Viet Nam. About 6 tours of Nam, and now flying for Blue Hawaiian in Kauai, and loving it.

We were a little worried the flight would not be good because of all the clouds around, but we seemed to stay below the clouds most of the time, so it was a wonderful trip.

This was a cruise ship at the harbour in Lihue.

Interior of Kauai, and the "Grand Canyon of the Pacific".

We did run into a little rain on the northwest coast, but nothing serious. In fact, it just added to the experience. The island is just gorgeous, and beautiful to see from the helicopter. Jimmy says rain is called "liquid sunshine" as it keeps this island so green, hence why it's called "The Garden Island". The Na Pali coast is just awesome...it can't be described.

I can't do justice to the island in pictures from the chopper. I was sitting next to Jimmy in the front, so didn't have a side window in which to get close with the camera. These little specks are cattle.

After our tour, we went back to the Blue Hawaiian office where Dan purchased a DVD of our trip, which we'll share. We were all rather hungry now, so were recommended "Duke's" on the beach, just across the street from the office. Beautiful Kalapaki Beach at Nawiliwili Bay.

After lunch, we headed back to our respective locales. We were all meeting at 5 p.m. for dinner and a luau back in Lihue.

I spent some of the afternoon checking out the chatter in the yard. These are what was causing it.

We went for dinner with Dan & Joanne and their friends, Coral & Jim, at Gaylord's Restaurant at Kilohana. This was a former sugar cane plantation estate. We dined outside on the terrace, then they led us by torch light to the Kalamaku Lu'au in a 20,000 sq ft pavilion, where we had front row seats (because we ate there). These torch carriers could have led me off a cliff.

The show was a story about the first Polynesians to come to the island of Kauai. And drinks were free! Only had one though.

That was the end of the day for us. It took about 35 minutes to get back to our place.