Helicopter Ride

May 17, 2012

We took a helicopter tour of West Maui and over to Molokai.

West Maui tour is a combined  flight across the Paiolo channel to the "Friendly Isle." Molokai has the world highest, most spectacular sea cliffs, Hawaii's tallest waterfall, remote valley's and the famous Kalaupapa peninsula.

heading out to our helicopter

the boys all ready to go

Looking back at Kahului

some beautiful coastline

looking out at the beautiful coast

looking down at a small portion of the extremely twisty and narrow road along the northern coast of the island.  There are several parts of this two lane road that there is only enough room for about 1 and 1/2 cars....it gets a little tricky at times.  We drove along this road earlier in the week.

flying over the Kapalua or Ka'anapali area

Molokai

crossing the Paiolo Channel to Molokai

South east Molokai coast

some beautiful waterfalls

some of the beautiful Molokai coastline

another amazing waterfall

believe this is the one used in Jurassic Park

Kalaupapa Peninsula

The village is the site of a former leprosy settlement. Settlement was first established in Kalawao in the east, opposite to the village corner of the peninsula. It was there where Father Damien settled in 1873. Later it was moved to the location of the current village, which was originally a Hawaiian fishing village. The settlement was also attended by Mother Marianne Cope, among others. At its peak, about 1,200 men, women, and children were in exile in this island prison. The isolation law was enacted by King Kamehameha V and remained in effect until 1969, when it was finally repealed. Today, about fourteen former sufferers of leprosy (now known as Hansen's Disease) continue to live there.^[5] The colony is now part of Kalaupapa National Historical Park.

Shortly before the end of mandatory isolation in 1969, the state legislature considered closing the facility entirely. Intervention by interested persons, such as entertainer Don Ho and TV newsman Don Picken, resulted in allowing the residents to remain there for life. The opponents to closure pointed out that, although there were no active cases of leprosy in existence, many of the residents were physically scarred by the disease to an extent which would make their integration into mainstream society difficult if not impossible.

some of the beautiful cliffs of Molokai

he said he was "...tired of just sitting here looking at stuff..."

a last look back at Molokai

back to Maui and the Kaanapali area

some of the neat cliffs of Maui

sugar cane fields near Kahului

last look at our helicopter

This was an amazing excursion we got to go on!  It was so amazing to get to see so much of Maui and Molokai from the air.