Kauai is not known as the Garden Island for nothing! It is hard to imagine a greener lusher location although to have that much greenery and growth you must also have some rain. And so, choosing to tour Kauai on a helicopter is a balancing act! You are looking for the sun shining from the right direction for the best images of the Na Pali coastline, and you are also looking for some clear conditions over the mountains. And the weather can be pretty changeable from day to day. I wanted to capture the best images of the island that I could, which, for me, meant that I didn’t want to have glass windows in the way, and I also wanted to be pretty sure that I had a window seat. That all meant that Jack Harter’s open-door helicopter was the one for me. The helicopter seats 4 passengers plus the pilot, which does mean that one person has to sit in the middle of the front row – not great for what I wanted, and they don’t guarantee specific seats as they weight balance each flight. All I know is that the lightest person tends to sit in that middle seat – so beware!
Equipment used for the flight
The key piece of equipment is the helicopter, which is an MD500. You sit in a regular car type seat with a regular seat belt but, as they say, they have never lost anyone yet! I often wonder if that also means that they always find the body. I hope not! My equipment was my Sony A7RIII with 16-35mm lens set to 400 ISO. I don’t think I had a polarizing filter because of issues of the sky having strange dark colors with such a wide-angle lens. My aperture was normally either F4 or F5.6 as pretty much everything is at “infinity” for focusing. I also had a GoPro strapped to my lower leg to capture some videos! Strange indeed! This image (which is not great at all) shows you the view from the doorway with my GoPro in the lower right.
Perfect time for the flight?
I watched the weather forecast carefully and booked my flight three days in advance. You do have to wait until they get enough people for the flight (which was $300 in 2019) and so you get a confirmation the day before. I chose a 2pm flight because I decided that the light would cast some interesting shadows along the Na Pali coastline while not leaving it all in shadow. This is what I had in mind:
It doesn’t seem to matter which side you sit on – and you don’t get a choice! The helicopter does rotate around the main points of interest. I sat on the left behind the pilot, which means that he was facing into the land when I took this shot.
What do you see on a helicopter tour?
Lots! I’ll now focus on the main sights that are visited. Most helicopters follow the same path in order around the island to avoid the chance of a collision although I think one of the tours lands at the big waterfall that was used in Jurassic Park:
From there, the tour heads towards Waimea Canyon and zooms over the edge of the gorge to give you a dramatic view down towards the ocean:
The details of such a massive panorama are often as intriguing as the big picture. This next image focuses down on those trees at the bottom of the valley:
The grandeur of the Grand Canyon of Kauai is dramatic from the roadside overlooks but seeing it from above adds just a bit more!
From there you head over the next range of hills to see the Na Pali coastline and the ocean. The fluted rock formations are really amazing – it certainly makes me wonder how erosion produces such sharp edges!
Many of the beaches that you see along this stretch of coastline are practically inaccessible to most people. There is a very difficult several days hike along the coast which ends at this beach below – known as Kalalau beach. Perhaps in my younger days!
Ke’e beach is the end of the road going north from Princeville and this image (which I just found in my files when looking for images for this article) is a beautiful view of the beach and the coastline all the way up to Hanalei in the top left:
Then, after a flight over Hanalei Bay, we head inland to the wettest place on earth under the summit of Mt Waialeale. This mountain is almost always covered by clouds which are leaking water which turns into waterfalls down the steep sides. This gives you an idea of what it is like under those clouds:
And with that, you fly back over a few more waterfalls and head back to the airport – perhaps 45 minutes in total. But, what an experience!
By the way, I have written about other adventures in Hawaii on this site. You can see all my articles about Oahu and Kauai (with Maui to come) here.
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Steve Estvanik / Cascoly
26 Dec 2022Beautiful pix! were you also able to see the Waimea canyon from ground level? this was only heli tour i’ve ever taken & well worth it
Steve Heap
27 Dec 2022Yes, I’ve been up and down the canyon – great spot for photos! And the helicopter tour is pretty impressive as well!
Bob Decker
30 Dec 2022Wow! Stunning aerial photographs! Looks like that would be a great experience. Thanks for sharing.
Steve Heap
31 Dec 2022Thanks Bob – yes, it was fantastic and I managed to capture what I was after!
jim hughes
30 Dec 2022Obviously a real success, resulting in a whole bunch of great images. I enjoy tales of real struggles of photographers who aren’t working with an unlimited budget and may have to accept failure. At 160 pounds I’m not going to lay down $300 and take a chance on that middle seat!
Pardon the cross-posting, but I once blogged about my own decidedly mixed results try to photograph whales over on Maui. You might get a laugh from my struggles:
https://jimhphoto.com/index.php/2020/03/12/whale-photography-for-dummies/
Steve Heap
31 Dec 2022No problem about the post – the more the merrier. You did a great job both explaining the story and illustrating it. Much better whale pictures than I have managed! I’m about the same weight as you and have had an outside seat on both flights. It tends to be the lady guest that sits in the middle!
Jim Cook
3 Jan 2023Great photos and adventure. I particularly liked the photo of water trickling down the mountain beneath the clouds.
Steve Heap
4 Jan 2023Thanks Jim. That leaking mountain one was from the first flight I did about 10 years ago. Conditions definitely change a lot from flight to flight!