Blog Post by Athena Walsh

Aloha from Maui Sights and Treasures & the Maui Snorkel Store.

I was recently given the opportunity to experience Maui’s newest tour… I had the best time!!  The Hana Rain Forest Experience is my new favorite tour on Maui!

Everyone loves the Helicopter Tours and I always get the best comments and reviews! There have always been 3 main Helicopter Touring options: a flight to Molokai, with it’s 3,000 ft Sea Cliffs and Waterfalls, a flight up to see inside of 10,000 ft. Haleakala Volcano and a Tour of the West Maui Mountains, which gets over 300 inches if Rain a year! (combine Haleakala with W. Maui for a “Circle Island Helicopter Tour“).

All Maui Helicopter flights except Molokai, fly over land, not along the ocean. Our newest Helicopter tour departs the Maui Heliport and flies over the North Shore Beaches to the little town of Pa’ia, before heading out over the ocean… the views are and were just spectacular!!

(Video is only 16 seconds, no music on this one…)

Imagine the beautiful Blue Ocean against the lush Green of the Hana Hwy,  with 10,000 ft. Haleakala Volcano as the backdrop…

Seeing the waterfalls flowing off the cliffs along the Road to Hana Hwy was a fabulous experience! Along the way there are also Arches and a “Hole in the Rock” and several Bays and Coves.

Continuing along the Hana Rain Forest, our helicopter (an Airbus Eco Star Helicopter where every headset has a microphone to ask your pilot questions or to talk to each other) flew inland deep into the Ke’anae Valley to see Kano Falls up close and personal! What a lush and beautiful valley! There are several waterfalls and streams and our Pilot Eddie made a point to turn so everyone could get a good view (and photos!). 

On most Maui Helicopter Tours, we would then continue on… however the best thing about this Hana Rain Forest Helicopter tour…is that we got to land on private property (purchased from Coca Cola) right next to a fresh water stream!

The thrill and feel of landing in this remote and beautiful spot was unbelievable. I immediately went to put my feet in the stream flowing by…

Our pilot took us around the property, which took a year and a half to clear by machete… The forest keeps trying to reclaim its own, and being so remote there is no way to bring in heavy equipment, even if they wanted to.

The plan is to plant 1500 Banana Trees with Ti Trees in between, plus some Samoan Taro plots. Our pilot and the Hawaiian man doing most of the clearing and landscaping brought us ripe Papayas, Bananas and even a Strawberry Guava!

When the rain-forest landing was being cleared, the remains of an ancient Hawaiian Taro Field was found. On top of the Taro Field of which they found evidence of Rice Fields planted by the Japanese, who were brought over by the Europeans to cultivate the new Sugar Fields.

All in all a fabulous experience, one i loved so much… i did it all over again with my girlfriends a few days later!

For Tickets and more information on the Hana Rain Forest Experience Helicopter Tour, please call us direct at 808-879-6260 ext. #1. We are in the process of building a new mobile friendly website and as yet do not have this wonderful Helicopter flight online yet. Special Introductory Offer expires soon! $299.00 (inclusive of Tax & Fuel)