10 November 2009
This morning, we packed up and checked out of the Marriott. We had our site inspection and breakfast at the Mekena Beach resort and then headed for the airport to check in for our helicopter tour.
This was unreal! We got given positions to sit in the helicopter and had to all stand in those positions until we boarded the chopper. We got in while the blades were going around, and I was petrified I was going to be decapitated. We got in and got strapped in and met our pilot. We started to lift, and it felt like the thing wasn’t going to get off the ground. We took off and my stomach completely dropped, but I almost squealed it was so much fun! We lifted up and over the mountains and saw the area where some of Jurassic Park was filmed and the flew over some of the most spectacular cliffs in the world. We saw waterfalls and mountain peaks completely covered by the mist. The highlight was when we saw the waterfall where the helicopter landed in the movie, and if that wasn’t cool enough, the pilot played the theme song through the headphones and lowered us down right in front of it. Just pure magic!
We landed the helicopter and then proceeded onto the airport to check in for our flight to Honolulu. The flight was only about half an hour long and we landed and collected our bags at the airport.
After checking into the Miramar hotel (which was next door to Dennys!) we went for a site inspection at the brand-new Trump towers, which is not even open yet. We watched a beautiful sunset from the penthouse apartment and then went for pupus (hors d’oeuvres) at the Yard house, who claimed to have more brands of beer than anywhere else in the world. I stumped them by asking for an Efes.
After we finished off there, we went back to the hotel and then went out to explore Waikiki and do some shopping. I bought some presents for people and ended up going to bed around midnight.