As cliche as it sounds, when our helicopter pilot turned on the "Jurassic Park" theme song and steered low around the massive rock formation made famous in the 1993 movie, I got goose bumps.
Flying around Keopuka, known as Jurassic Rock for its prominent placement in the blockbuster film, is one of those helicopter highlights that is hard to forget. And our pilot, Toon de Veuster, despite bringing groups on the same route over and over, somehow managed to make it seem as special for him as it was for us.
This was Maverick Helicopters' Hana Rainforest Experience, an offering unique among Maui helicopter tours because it includes a rainforest landing on a taro plantation that Maverick owns. The route from the heliport flies along Maui's north coast, offering stunning views of the waterfalls and cliffs that most people drive to see from the Road to Hana.
Flying into a valley past clusters of soaring waterfalls, Toon gently landed in the rainforest clearing. During our 30-minute stay, he served our group of six Champagne and soda before walking us around to show us the plants and share some of the region's history. Among the highlights: a huge monkeypod tree, dipping our feet into a cool stream and learning to sip the sweet nectar from the stem of a native flower.
Bryan Kroten, Maverick's vice president of marketing, knows how important those moments are, since most Maverick passengers are on their first helicopter ride.
"When somebody walks into one of our terminals, or somebody gets in the helicopter for the first time, it likely is the first time ever having a helicopter experience," he said. "It's probably something they're going to remember the rest of their lives. So we want them to remember that in the best way possible."
Maverick, Kroten said, calls its flights experiences, and from the moment a guest walks into the lobby, that's what he wants them to have -- from shaking the pilot's hand and taking pictures together preflight to guiding them around the landing. The pilot, Kroten said, is "your tour guide, your concierge, your entertainer, your everything. So we very much care about their flight skills, but we also care about their personality and their communication skills, because that really goes hand in hand with the experience we're trying to provide."
The Hana Rainforest Experience and the Molokai Voyage, over West Maui and Molokai, which has the world's tallest sea cliffs, are Maverick's most popular Maui tours.