Ablaze

When you go to Hawaii don’t forget to pack your winter woollies. (I was there last week.  It was minus five.)  But DO forget the cliché beach-resorts, the Surfers’ Paradise of Surfers’ Paradises.

There is a far better, genuine and non-touristic Hawaii: towering volcanoes, year-round snow, lava flows… and decaying, art deco country towns populated by an amazing mix of Polynesians, Asians and Caucasians, all a universe away from the ride-on-mower, golf-buggy resorts and surfy zeitgeist of the ‘known’ places.

When the Beach Boys released ‘Hawaii’ in 1963, they set, in my young mind at least, an image of a Hawaii that was made up of malibus, grass skirts… surfer guys and girls…  But just as Australia is so much more than Bondi, Hawaii is way more than Waikiki.

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I have a problem.

How do I stretch ‘Wow!’ into a one thousand-word article?

Ok, how’s this for starters:  ‘Wow, wow… and wow, again!’?

Forgive me.  I’ve been lucky enough to do some exciting things in my time, including riding a motorcycle half way up Kilimanjaro, but I have one more to add to that top ten percent of travel experiences that make the expense, the organisation and down right hard work of international travel worthwhile.

I’ve just taken a helicopter ride over the island of Kauai.  Yes: Wow!  Wow! And WOW again!

If the name Kauai does not ring a bell, how’s this: ‘South Pacific’, ‘Blue Hawaii’, ‘Jurassic Park’, ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark’, ‘Hook’, ‘George of the Jungle’, to name but a few?

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New Zealand’s Milford Sound exposes the inadequacy of photography, and memory.

Did I actually see that?  Did I actually do that?

And who made all this?

Standing on Milford’s shoreline, waterfalls dropping from mountains almost as high as Kosciusko really is a religious experience, the scene forever changing as Zen-like clouds mist-ify the now covered, now uncovered, ridges and peaks.

The Roaring Forties constantly bring saturated air from the Tasman Sea, and the resulting billows swirl in huge vortices around the spires.  Whole mountains float mid-air before disappearing.  Then flashes of sunlight reflect, golden, on the high glaciers.

If you are into dramatic scenery, let me tell you: do not go anywhere else in the world until you’ve seen Milford.  For ease-of-execution and simple wow! factor, you cannot beat it and the – sorry, I’ve got to say - breathtaking drive from Queenstown.

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The above is the beginning of the article only.  To read, or purchase, the complete article, please see the left hand column for conditions of sale and then click here and request the article. You will recieve a confirmation email including instructions for payment.