Brendon takes to the skies in Hawaii on a one hour whistle stop tour over its blue waters.
The island of Oahu in the Hawaiian group is home to the famous and much-visited Waikiki Beach, with highrise apartment blocks and hotels, freeways and lots of tourists. But there is much more to it than that.
Island Seaplane Service has the only seaplane tour of the islands. They have a 45-year background in flying seaplanes over Minnesota, Florida, Alaska, Canada, the Caribbean and south-east Asia.
Pat Magie is the founder of the company. He has flown 36,000 hours, about 29,000 of them in seaplanes, which is a world record. All of Pat's pilots are selected for flight skills as well as their congeniality.
Their flights let you see Oahu and its tropical scenery and, in the right season, whales enjoying the tropical waters.
Aloha flights last half an hour. After being welcomed at the company's floating office, you are briefed on what you will be seeing. After take-off you climb along Honolulu Harbour and the famous Aloha Tower, pass Waikiki Beach and take a good look into the crater of Diamond Head.
Your plane then goes over the prestigious homes of Kahala, on to Koko Head crater, Hanauma Bay, Sealife Park, Kaneohe Bay and through the Pali Pass. Before returning to Keehi Lagoon you take a circuit over the Arizona Memorial.
The one-hour Islander flight takes in all of the Aloha flight sights then continues over Kaneohe Bay and along the Windward coast of Oahu. You will see Chinaman's Hat (the location for several movies), Kahana Bay, the Polynesian Cultural Centre, the Mormon Temple, BYU Hawaii Campus, Kahuku sugar mill, Windmill farm and Turtle Bay Hilton.
The world-famous surfing areas of Sunset Beach, Banzai Pipeline, Waimea Bay and Haleiwa as well as the Waimea Falls can be seen in all their breathtaking beauty from your seaplane. Heading south, you look out on hectares of pineapple crops and the remains of sugar cane fields, Schofield barracks, Wheeler army airfield and Pearl Harbour.
Before touching down at Keehi lagoon, you will see the Arizona Memorial, the battleship Missouri and Hickham airforce base. Complimentary vans pick up and drop off in the Waikiki area.
