Kilauea View From a Helicopter

One of the very best vacations my husband and I enjoyed included an exciting helicopter ride flying over Kilauea that took place in 1989 on the Big Island of Hawaii. We splurged on a trip that included spending five wonderful days at Waikoloa which is now the Hilton Waikoloa Village. It's located on the Kohala Coast at the base of Mauna Kea the complex covers an area of 61 acres of oceanfront land on the northwest part of the island.

Waikoloa was huge but transportation to our room was available by monorail, a canal boat or you could walk using any of the walkways going through beautiful lush gardens, around small lagoons, walking beneath waterfalls or meandering through the shops and restaurants. It really depended on where you wanted to go and how fast you wanted to get there. During the days we walked and in the evenings used the canal boats. There were seven restaurants ranging from casual foods to steak and seafood in a quiet romantic setting. It was a wonderful and relaxing vacation. We swam with the dolphins, went sailing on a Catamaran in the late afternoon, spent an afternoon browsing shops, watched a young man make various baskets and visited the macaw and cockatoo in the main lobby. Our most exciting day was was in a small helicopter flying over Kilauea.

On our second day we met a young lady who asked if we were interested in taking a helicopter ride over Kilauea. Thinking of the large tour helicopters we politely said no and she told us it would be in a small three person helicopter. That sounded great so a call was made to IO Aviation and within the hour we were in our rental car on our way to the Hilo airport. We had a great pilot who ended up giving us a trip that lasted over an hour. It was drizzly when we left Hilo and started up the mountain but the weather cleared by the time we left the lush green hills and entered the volcano area. The change in scenery was dramatic with barren desert type land occasioned with spots of brush and red hot burning spots along with miles of greyish black lava. Flying low along the coastline and seeing the huge clouds of steam rising from the lava tubes entering the ocean you could smell the sulfur. Viewing the remains of a demolished town where almost 200 home were destroyed was especially eerie with the only remaining object being a street stop sign in the middle of a lava field. It was a once in our lifetime trip to remember forever.

By the time we landed I had fallen in love with the helicopter and Bob was ready to get me signed up for lessons as soon as we got home. Of course our income didn't justify this and we regained our sanity when we were back in Humboldt County.

Kilauea is the youngest volcano in Hawaii. In its floor is Halemaumau, a fiery pit. The usual level of the lake of molten lava is c.740 ft (230 m) below the pit's rim. The oldest dated rock is about 23,000 years old and the oldest eruption of Kilauea was about 300,000-600,000 years ago. (More history dates on Mount Kilauea)

Kilauea was formed under a hot spot under the crust. So were the other volcanoes on the Big Island such as Kohala, Mauna Kea, Mauna Loa, and Hualalai. There have been 34 eruptions since 1952 and 61 eruptions total. In early 1973, an earthquake occurred that caused Kilauea to stop erupting and instead erupt near the craters Pauahi and Hi'iaka. Current eruption began January 3, 1983 and is called Pu'u'O'o.

Hawaii, nicknamed BIG ISLAND because of it's 8 major volcanoes, is currently 4038 square miles (approx. 6 500 square km ) and grows around 42 acres every year thanks to all of mount Kilauea's eruptions.

Mount Kilauea is one of 5 active volcanoes in Hawaii, others are Loihi, Mauna Loa, Hualalai and Haleakala.
Mount Kilauea Volcano is home of Fire Goddess, Pele.
Source: Mount Kilauea Facts

Satellite Photo: kilauea_3.jpg
Source: http://www.volcanodiscovery.com/hawaii/kilauea/