Our flight from Kauai to the Big Island got of to a good start, right on schedule.

This is our Boeing 737 that we flew to the Big Island on. It was a little more cramped than the 737 we flew from Cleveland to San Francisco. Aloha packs a couple more rows of seats on the plane, I guess.

This is the Kauai airport, which we heard is a relatively new structure, only about 10 years old or so…

This is a view of the northwest point of Oahu from the air, we had wanted to walk out to Kaena Point while we were on the island, but the brush fire had the road closed out to the point.

These ridges are on the western side of Oahu along the Farrington Highway. I think that may be “Hawaiian Waters Adventure Park” behind the ridge on the lower picture.

This is the very busy Honolulu International Airport from the taxiway out to the runway. We had a 45 minute stop in Honolulu to unload and pickup passengers and cargo.

Oh, and guess which island cruise ship was now in the Honolulu harbor? Hey, Steve, it’s the Pride of America, waiting for your November cruise!

And, we got one more look at Diamond Head as we headed for the big island.

We got a peek of the west end of Maui at the top of these two pictures (above and below) and it’s neighbor island to the south, Kahoolawe

We landed at Kona International Airport about 15 minutes later, and had to deplane down stairs, as this airport has no jetways for loading/unloading passengers at door level….

Boy, it sure would have been nice if our original AAA agent had known
more about Kaua’i. She said 1 day was enough because it was a small
island. Of course, if we hand not been so tired on Thursday, we would
have driven around more, and then some more on Friday after the island
flight. Sure glad we took that flight, though, as we saw much of the
island that we never would have seen by car.

I took the laptop down to the hotel lobby early this morning and loaded
pages from Thursday and Friday, and back dated each of them to their
respective date and time, so you may have to jump past a couple HipTop
messages to see them all.

We should be boarding shortly (half hour or so) for our flight to Kona
Airport on the Big Island.

This is another lava tube that goes out to the edge of the cliffs and incoming waves push water up the tube and out the opening 30-40 feet back from the water’s edge. I took several minutes of video that shows some great blasts, but will not get that online until after we get home, probably.

Well, after breakfast we decided to see if we could schedule a helicopter ride around the island this morning, but alas, nothing was available on that short notice. However, we did get onboard an airplane ride around the island. It was a 6 passenger propeller craft, and we had a great time. I took almost 60 minutes of video, and Marianne took several hundred photos. I have included a few shots below….

That’s our plane… Just before boarding

"Downtown" Lihue, Kauai

The fishpond and river south of Lihue.

Southeastern corner of the island.

This crater, on the southern shore, near Poipu, is thought to be the site of the last eruption on Kauai Island many thousands of years ago.

The Poupi Coast

Sugar Cane fields west of Hanapepe

Waterfalls on the Hanapepe river.

The "Grand Canyon" of the pacific: Waimea Canyon.

The Napali Coast on the west side of Kauai. These cliffs rise out of the ocean to heights of 4,000 feet, nearly straight up.

The north end of the Napali Coast.

Princeville, near the Hanalei Bay.

Waterfalls abound in the central part of the island, the central mountain, Wai’ale’ale, is the wettest point on earth, with an average rainfall of about 450 inches a year!

Trivia Question of the Trip: Who can tell me where you have seen this waterfall before (and not on Kauai). It has been filmed and used on a very popular show, just tell me which one?

Nawiliwili Lighthouse on the south end of the airport, just before landing.