by Sheila O'Neill

here’s no doubt about it — the best way to see Kauai’s Waimea Canyon, one of the world’s most romantic wedding/honeymoon spots, is by helicopter. Originally excited and chatty, we became silent as the rich layers of red, brown, gold, gray and green loomed into view. This 10 mile-long canyon, a mile wide and more than 3,600 feet deep, was created by eons of high wind and erosion, and is unmatched anywhere on the islands.

Waterfalls descend sharply down the hillsides as rivers gurgle below — all of which we saw through the front window. We felt the energy of this place as we soared among its peaks and valleys. We wanted to reach out and touch the mana (power).
Rain, of course, is what keeps this island green (well that, and the tourists’ dollars, joke the locals!) and Kauai entered the Guinness Book of Records on November 23, 1982, with a total of 714 inches of rain for the year, 49 inches of which fell in one 24-hour period.

A high point of the tour was seeing Wai’ale’ale (Hawaiian for “rippling waters”) — one of the wettest places on earth. The water from the summit descends a roaring 10 miles down the mountain-face, spilling forcefully over an 80-foot precipice to form Wailua Falls.

[The] helicopter offers a front row seat to some of nature’s most majestic and breathtaking treasures.

Kauai by helicopter offers a front row seat to some of nature’s most majestic and breathtaking treasures. Soaring amidst the lush green forests of Kauai’s spectacular scenery, we could relate to a comment someone recorded in the logbook. “My vocabulary has been reduced to three words: ‘wow,’ ‘incredible,’ and ‘unbelievable,’” he wrote. Or, as one visiting couple told us, “This is better than anything we’ve seen on the Discovery Channel. And we work there.”

Jack Harter Helicopters: tel. 888/245-2001; www.helicopters-kauai.com.

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