Last shot of the series. Heading back above the mountain road toward Waimea before dropping off to the dry side of the island to land back at Hapuna. Old cinder cone in the photo.

NE Coastline, Big Island, Valleys and Waterfalls.

Waipio Valley, Big Island Hawaii, Helicopter

Leaving the east coast of Hawaii, we start approaching the Waipio and other valleys along the NE Coast of the Big Island. There are a bunch of corrogations up here, five or more super deep valleys that are virtually impassible. Waipio has some native old family (Kamaina) inhabitants/farmers living a homesteading life, growing Taro and other food. All photos by Pamela Huggins.

Hilo and the Hamakua Coast of Hawaii

All of these pictures, by the way, were taken by Pamela Huggins on a cheap Kodak EasyShare set at low res (my fault) through the acrylic bubble of the helicopter. And BTW, use Sunshine Helicopter on the Big Island. They are great and our pilot Grant was not only awesome but the ladies thought he was hot. :-)

In this final shot of Pu'u O'o crater, you can see the crater (the entire round surface is a lake of lava covered by a thin crust), the hole in the 'ice' that spits out lava while you watch and the expanse of the underground lava tube leading toward the coast.

Hawaii Big Island Helicopter Tour

Helicopter Pix of Pu'u O'o crater near Volcano, HI. The crater is the active lake of lava that sometimes spills over the top of the crater and heads toward the sea (Makai). Currently the lava is mostly running under the ground in a lava tube. You can see the smoke rising from the tube heading toward the sea, but the lava is running inside. This stretches for many miles. Don't know how many.