Do you recall the scene in the Steven Spielberg movie “Jurassic Park” where a helicopter lands beside a waterfall on Isla Noblar?  In the background, John William’s upbeat, brassy fanfare fills the viewer with a sense of awe and anticipation.

I can still feel the excitement the day we disembarked from the “Pride of America” to take our own helicopter flight over the fabled “Jurassic Falls” in Kauai. 

We had been told to look for a white Ford van. Our driver was standing at the entrance to the shed with an Island Helicopters sign. 

Once at the airfield we met the other people who were to fly.  There was one Englishman from Milton Keynes, newlyweds from Texas and another man on his own from somewhere in the USA.

It was a small helicopter with no spare room but I had a big window beside me all the way to the floor.  We had uninflated lifejackets around our middle ready for the unthinkable and were given noise cancelling Bose headphones to wear.  Lift off was quiet and gentle.

As we flew over Hanapepe Valley, classical music, although surprisingly not the Jurassic Park theme, played in the headphones and I just sat there with my mouth open in amazement as I looked at the serrated ridges below me.

 Jurassic Park Falls came into view (correctly known as Mana Waiapuna) and I wished I’d paid the extra $100 to land there and walk around. 

Canyon after canyon appeared.  First Olokele and then Waimea Canyon, named the Grand Canyon of the Pacific by Mark Twain.  

We were all oohing and aahing but then the Na’pali Coast came into view.  The pilot choreographed the flight so that each scene opened up before us like a slide show. Curving, white, perfect beaches with no access other than by water were sometimes joined by rock tunnels to the next beach.  We could see small flotillas of kayaks gathered in the ocean.  We flew over Hanalei Bay which made me wonder if that is where Puff the Magic Dragon came from.  

By this time I thought the best must be over but we had even more spectacular sights to come.  The crowning glory was Mt Waialeale (try to pronounce that!), the wettest spot on earth with 450 to 500 inches of rain a year.  Fortunately it wasn’t raining when we were there.  We hovered in the centre of a crater with 5000 foot walls and 3000 foot waterfalls.  This was a time when the word awesome was just right.  

It wasn’t all over yet.  We flew over Wailna Falls which apparently has been used in a TV show called Mystery Island.  I didn’t want it to stop but after an hour’s flying we gently landed at the airfield.

I may never travel in a helicopter again but I think if you are going to do it once this is the place to do it. We were lucky we had fine weather, especially around Mt Waialeale. It was a magnificent end to our seven day Pride of America cruise around Hawaii.