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Helicopter Around The Big Island

By Kaitlyn Davis

Hawaii is truly one of the most beautiful places I have ever been, and a Helicopter ride was definitely my favorite way of experiencing it.

My family and I arrived at a helipad, and right away they embarrassed all of the women by asking for our weights. We very reluctantly gave the workers real numbers, but only so they could balance the craft correctly. Our pilot was a kind of crazy old man, who kept joking about crashing or that it was his first flight. We all smiled a little, but in the back of all of our heads was who is this nut-case?

He turned out to be pretty cool, as I realized when we all piled onto the helicopter and he gave us our headphones. He joked when we took off, pretending that we couldn't get into the air, but within minutes we were looking down below to the rocky land of Hawaii.

I was excited as we flew towards the Volcano, anxious so see some molten lava, and I could barely contain my jitters. As we flew towards the smoky air, our pilot said he couldn't bring the helicopter any lower, but that we were lucky. The volcano had become active again the previous week, and I saw what he meant as we got closer. Streams of orange were slowly oozing down the mountain side. Molten was truly the correct word, and I wished I could get closer. We saw more lava running down the side of the Volcano, liquid rock is a scene that is not very easily forgotten, at least not by me. I was fascinated, and didn't want to look away!

However, I forgot about what seemed to have been miniscule streaks when we saw the peak of the volcano. Inside a gaping whole, there was living, breathing fire which sprouted out of the mountain. Smoke billowed in the wind, and tendrils stretched towards us like hands reaching to grab our tiny craft. Our pilot swerved us away, but I looked through the back windows, straining for one last glimpse of that hell hole.

"Enough of that!" Our pilot steered us past the barren rocky land and into the lush green forest that made up the other half of Hawaii. Our helicopter seemed to stop in midair, and then we slowly sank in an emerald canyon. As we made our descent, my breath seemed to catch in my mouth. All around me, on every side of the aircraft, were waterfalls that fell hundreds of feel into the base of the canyon, forming a little stream. The water was white and caught rainbows in the sun as it rushed past us. Birds stayed clear of out chopper but still flew around us, breaking up the all consuming green with spots of whites, pinks and blues.

Soon, we drifted back up to the canyon rim. "You're in for a treat!" Our pilot said through the headphones and suddenly I was inside a prism. Every color in the world was shimmering around me. The Hawaiian landscape below me was laced with color, like I was looking through a stained glass window. "You're inside a rainbow. What most people don't realize is that rainbows are 360 degrees around." Above me and below me was every color in the known universe, I was surrounded by what can only be described as magic.

Eventually, the color began to fade and we flew on. I saw helipads in the distance, and knew my adventure had come to an end, but what an adventure it had been! From hell to heaven, I felt like I had reached every corner of the earth in a mere hour! Our helicopter touched the ground lightly, and I ducked under the spinning propellers to meet my family back in the office area. As true tourists, we bought the video, and watched our adventure on the big screen as soon as we got home!