Diana did plan her 71st Birthday Bash in 1993: a trip to the big island of Hawaii with helicopter tour over the caldera of the volcano (she said it was her “big candle”), views of molten lava beneath the ocean still steaming from the red-hot flow after several weeks and, on the way back to the Hilo Airport, various waterfalls not visible to people without aerial vantage. Diana likened that experience to climbing staircases with floral sights unique to the island.
She said that, as good as the National Geographic footage is of the volcanic activities using telephoto lenses, there is no substitute for being above it in person so you can smell the sulfur and, even in the air-conditioning of the helicopter a mile above the lava, feel the heat beneath your feet. Beyond that, she said the perspective is also only possible when in the helicopter so you can see how small we mere mortals are compared to the scale of power exhibited by nature.