Kauai and the Big Island, Apr 2007

We spent the April 2007 school vacation in Hawaii. We visited the islands of Kauai and Hawaii which were both quite beautiful and yet quite different in character, too.

We spent the first 2/3s of the trip on Kauai, spending time on the beaches on the North side, then later exploring the Waimea Canyon area from the Southwest end.

Later, we explored the stunningly rugged area around Waimea Canyon and the edges of the Na'Pali Coast both on foot and from the air. It's too steep to get a picture of both the kids and the canyon floor!

Here we are buckled up and ready to take-off...

The views from the helicoptor were fantastic - better than these images can convey....

I highly recommend taking the helicoptor tour - we had a good experience with Blue Hawaiian and their Eco-Star helicoptors have the biggest windows even from the back seat (front is the best).

We spent the last three days on the Big Island atop Kilauea at Volcano House. We explored the Kilauea caldera (Halemau'uma'u crater in the panorama) and the active lava flows on the Eastern side coming from Pu'u O'o. It took a 6-hr RT hike but it was well worth it. On the flow, you don't have to look far to see it sometimes!

The lava cools off in distinctive patterns depending on it's composition and motion. The type show here is called Pa'hoe'hoe is characterized by the ribbon nature of the folds. The other common type of lava is called A'a.

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