Janice Higgison

I'm On A Journey . . .

90 – Honolulu heights

From the 18th floor the lights of Honalulu disquise the island reality. Music and traffic sounds fill the air, blocking the sights of the ocean and sounds of the ocean waves. Its a big holiday space for getaway folks and transit route for many flights and well set up to provide sun, ocean and any travellers holiday lifestyle you need!Its my last stop before home so I enjoy the ocean, music and bus tours on this island of Oahi with the famous Waikiki beach. American culture and island easy are a shopping eating and touring feast…

But I wana go home

My energy has moved out of tracel and back to New Zealand

Seeking

Familiarity

Family

Friends

89 – Haleakala National Park

The rise from maui township up the saddleback road to the top of Haleakala gives away its impressive asscent by the tumbling temperature change and wicked wind that picks up. As you drive through the clouds and look back down there are ever changing weather pattern

Silver sword. A rare and stuning plant that does well at 3.500 metres above sea level with limited water and windy mountain top conditions.

Its tricky to do justice to a 7.5 mile crater in a photo.

88 – Motor bike tours of Maui

Staying with a motor bike enthusiast opened up another way to travel. Dave volunteered a motor bike tour around the west side of the volcano. This really kept me firmly in touch with the weather, abundant supplies of fresh air and a lesson in one of his favorite bikes ( yup… hes got a dozen or more). Maui’s curving roads that sweep around the island make bike riding fun and engaging, especially when you know you are in good hands with a well experienced rider

Stopping at Lahaina to see the largest banyan tree in the USA. The great banyon tree spreads itself by sending down suckers to the ground which expand to create a bigger and bigger tree with a shade canopy large enough to host the whole local market. This great specimen is growing in the space of the old courthouse grounds which now houses the museum

Twin falls wraps around the roots of a banyan tree provides a swimming hole when the rains ease off

Boo. Love bamboo

Submarine tour to examine the ocean floor and shipwrecks

Lava cools and meets the ocean creating dramatic black sand beaches and wave washed caves

87 – Hawaii stop over

I decided it was time to go home. My thoughts kept leading back to New Zealand and I was getting home sick and needing to dig deeper and deeper to find satisfaction as a traveller. Flights from Mexico city often stopped in Hawaii. So I took the opprtunity to check out the islands of Hawaii as part of my journey

The red dot is Mexico city that I left from. Transit point on the map shows Los Angeles where the plane is and the string of islands that make up the Hawaiian islands are just under the word Los Angeles on the map. New Zeland can be seen beside Australia in the down under of the map

5 hours from LA and a touch down on Maui brings me to face to face with friend Robyn, that I chanced to meet on Great Barrier Island in New Zealand over Christmas. Taking up the offer to come and visit proved to be an amazing opportunity to spend 2 weeks on the land of sun, surf and experiencing Hawaiian culture.Maui is made up of 2 volcanos, that time has filled in, creating more land fill over time. This has created amazing landscapes from the lava flows and evolving vegetation. Stunning waterfalls can be found tumbling over hardened lava and the rich water table gives forests and plants an easy life. The temperature does not change much through the seasons, so standard attire of jandals, shorts and tee shirt are everywhere. Weather is the one thing that does change! Constantly!

Maui magic with Robyn. The backdrop of Iao valley from the lush sacred hills of Hawaii

Heading for a midnight swim in babv beach and nearly tripped over this handsome green turtle that had crawled out of the water to warm up on the evening sands. What an amazing experience.!

Great to see upcycling wherever I go! Here the maui ‘Art of trash’ event showcased a surfboard concerted to an electric guitar which belted out great surfing tunes!

The sacred Ioa valley looking out to the ocean

Hawaii has its own flag with the colours flying under the American stripes at the national park.

Sunbathing green turtle get their dose of vitamin D alongside the human swimmers and sun soakers of mauiSouvineer? A ukelele and a good book. How does it get any better than that

86 – Beach bums at Zipolite and Mazunte

After all that clay work..

We decided to head for the coast. So we booked a nice place to stay for 5 nights in Zipolite. The new team became Ana, Rudy and his dog Aroma, and me.

Having a car in the mix was a welcome change and we travelled the coast finding the flavours of Mexico. We were refreshed by the ocean waves on the different beached as the climate heated up towards the hottest season… the biggest joke. We had booked into the one legal nudest beach in mexico!!