Hawaii Day 3 – The Only Cool Thing About Helicopters is Freaking EVERYTHING

Our amazing helicopter tour took us over the extensive lava fields and the live volcano caldera as well as a quick jaunt up to see a stretch of waterfalls. Not the Jurassic Park waterfall, just to be clear. That’s a different tour.

Helicopters are equal parts thrilling and terrifying. Eventually, though, you forget the terrifying part and it’s just plain thrilling. I’ve never been in a helicopter before, and it’s not a cheap option for touring, but sometimes there are things that can only be seen a specific way. Glacier Bay in Alaska, for example. I was only going to see that if I went on my first cruise. And boiling lava in the heart of an active volcano was only going to be possible via helicopter. So if I was ever going to splurge, this was the time!

Today’s selfie.

The volcano Kiluaea has been erupting since 1983, and the lava field has spread over a large area of the southern part of island. About three months ago the lava solidified and stopped flowing actively into the ocean so we missed out on that viewing experience, however we did get lucky enough to see lava eruptions in the crater itself. Our pilot was excited by this, which I initially thought might be an affectation to make the tour seem better for our benefit, but even the crew back at the airport were surprised and impressed.

Boiling lava!

For a live view, I uploaded a short video to YouTube which you can watch here.

Walking uphill to see Rainbow Falls, Jeff and I discussed the options for changing sports team names to things less offensive than “Redskins” or “Indians” or “Braves”. I have some thoughts around swapping the appropriation of cultures that were decimated and then robbed of their homeland for themes less likely to take offense. Like geological formations, for example (The Granites, or  hey, how about The Volcanos). Also plants (the Cacti, or the Mighty Oaks). My personal favourite is TV pop culture references that millennials won’t get (The Washington Red Shirts, right? Problem solved, RIGHT??) And if cultural references are your deal, then we should stick with ancient cultures. The Vikings are already quite popular, but how about the Incas or the Aztecs. These are genius ideas. My services are for hire.

We added a few new additions to the animal species checklist:

• Angelfish, or Moorish Idol fish, or maybe a Pennant Coralfish. Who the heck knows – google certainly doesnt! Spotted in the waterfront of our hotel
• Yellow fish that might have been some kind of tang – also in the waterfront of the hotel
• Zebra dove – very common and very tame around the Hilo area
• Bright green gecko – I would have taken a picture but it was inside a porta-potty
• Saffron finch – beautiful little yellow birds
• Common Myna – has the colouring of Magpies without the long tail. “Common” is an understatement

Zebra Dove and Saffron Finch