Helicopter Tour

On our first full day of the trip, we took a helicopter ride of the island. This was Todd's favorite part of the trip. I will spare you a lot of the pics from the air since they didn't turn out all that well considering they were taken from inside a helicopter, but take my word for it when I tell you that the views were breathtaking. We flew over so many different terrains...rainforests, volcanos, cities, black sand beaches, farm land, mountains, etc. It's hard to believe that one small island could contain so much. We couldn't have asked for a better way to start out our wedding day ;)

Perhaps the most memorable part of the tour for me was the waterfalls in the rainforest. This area of the island is completely uninhabitant. The only way to even see it is by air. Many of the scenes from Jurassic Park were filmed on Maui.

Above is a photo of wind turbines recently added to the island. Currently, the residents of Maui depend on diesel fuel shipped in to them. This makes the cost of electricity high. Our pilot was saying that his electric bill is $500 a month for a small two-bedroom condo. The owner of the land that the turbines are placed on paid $2 million per turbine. He gets paid $0.25 for each turn each of the turbines make. He is doing so well that he is about to put in several more. Your fun fact for the day ;)