Helicopter Over Oahu with the Higginbothams

Bo and Holland

  One of the wonderful things about living in Oahu, Hawaii is that so many friends and family stop here on their travels. So from time to time I get surprise calls from long lost classmates, friends of friends, or in this case my cousins! I was pretty surprised to hear that my cousins Josh and David where here with their families and my Aunt Linda and Uncle Bruce. I don't get to see them very often since I have been working and living around the world so I jumped at the opportunity to catch up. Josh and I figured out that it had been 15 years since the last time we saw each other! So crazy how time flies. And after a wonderful Hawaiian style dinner at the Side Street Inn, and a wild bit of surfing at Waikiki Beach, we did a little flying of our own...in a helicopter!

Erica and David

Diamond Head

  For many of them this was their first time up in a helicopter. Everyone did great. I've seen Maui and Molokai from a 'copter before but never Oahu. It was extra special for me since I run nature tours all around the island to be able to finally see it from the air.

Hanauma Bay

Rabbit Island

  Right after taking off we could see the lines of waves still coming in. There was a pretty big swell along the south shore and we could see tons of surfers sitting on their boards, floating on the turquoise blue water. Hanauma Bay was beautiful as always and it was very cool getting to see aerial views of some of the little offshore islands like Rabbit Island and Coconut Island. Our pilot told us that Coconut Island was used as the aerial view of Gilligan's Island back in the day.

Kailua Town

Coconut Island

  The most beautiful part of the ride came while flying deep into the valleys on the east coast around Kualoa Ranch. We were looking down at some of the leftover sets from Jurassic Park 4 (Jurassic World) and locations for the original Jurassic Park movie. The sheer cliffs and ridgelines were pretty dramatic .

The peaks of Kualoa Ranch

Looking down on Jurassic Park

   Our pilot also took us right to the back of one of the valleys were a long waterfall called 'Sacred Falls' tumbled down into a hidden pool. I've heard that the hiking trail to the falls has been closed to the public but there are ways around it. I filed that knowledge away for a future mission.

North Shore Oahu

Waimea Bay

   The north shore looked like one long beautiful sandy beach. Waimea Bay was calm and clear with beautiful water. It was interesting seeing how much agriculture is still in use over the middle part of the island. The plateau between the two volcanoes was filled with pineapple fields, banana farms, and coffee orchards. We could also see down into the Dole Plantation maze so I made sure to snap a picture just in case I ever found myself lost inside of the maze.

Pearl Harbor

Just before arriving back at the heliport we passed over Pearl Harbor. It was cool getting this new and different view. I was really hoping to be able to see the wreck of the Arizona down through the water but the glare of the sun made it impossible. The wreck is just underwater lying perpendicular to the white memorial in the picture on the left.

Blue Hawaiian Helicopters

   Josh and David, if you are reading this, thanks again for an amazing helicopter ride. This was a pretty cool way to bond with the family. And now I only have Kauai and the Big Island left to check out by helicopter.

Left to Right:  Front Row: Bruce, Linda, Quinn, Jacob, Josh, Dai Mar  Second Row: David, Erica, Bo, Holland, Kimber