Island Addiction

Lahaina Sunset

In this season, I reflect on my experiences and the far away places that I have visited. I am beyond greatful, never taking for granted the resources and technology that allowed those experiences to be obtained. I am truly one of the privileged few on earth, having the freedom to travel in the modern way.

Maui is a beautiful island in the Hawaiian chain, close to the center of the largest ocean on earth. In this way, the sea surrounding the island exhibits a pristine beauty and purity that other tropical destinations envy. Where the power of the sea pounds the forbidding volcanic cliffs and headlands, the heart beat of a dynamic world can be heard and felt.


The Road to Hana



Falls near Hana

Lake Waikaremoana

With darkness lasting longer than light here in the western US, I am reminded that spring is quickly unfurling in the southern hemisphere. One of the strangest experiences is to leave the northern hemisphere in the dead of winter, to arrive in the southern hemisphere at the height of summer. Leaving a place that holds 8 hours of sunlight, and arriving in a different place with 16 hours of sunlight is certainly an experience that will leave the body somewhat confused.

New Zealand is a country blessed with amazing beauty. Most of the country has been converted from ancient native forest, to various types of grazing land and timber land to support the commercial interests of land holders. Of course, the most beautiful and mysterious places in New Zealand lie within the protected confines of national parks.

One such place called Te Urewera National Park allows a visitor to witness ancient New Zealand nature as it mostly once was.



Lake Waikaremoana

It is rare to see water clarity as great as what I experienced while camping on the shore of Lake Waikaremoana. The lake is huge, the deepest on the North Island, and completely natural (no dam). The forest and vegetation around the lake are native, allowing one to sense the pristine state of nature from the days of old.




A hike through the local forests will provide incredible views of the native Kauri trees that once dominated the New Zealand countryside. A slow growing hardwood, the Kauri have long been a prized wood for building. Unfortunately very few kauri forests are left due to the over logging and consumption by invasive non-native possums.



Kauri Tree

The Racetrack

Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
Ralph Waldo Emerson


Racetrack, Death Valley, CA

In the middle of nowhere, not too far from this place is a mysterious and desolate playa called The Racetrack. In the barren "wasteland" of Death Valley National Park, lies features that only the forces of nature themselves could conjure.



One theory explains that once in a great while, during a summer thunderstorm or a windy winter storm, the conditions are just right for the sliding of rocks across a slick, slimy film of lake bed clay. The rocks are pushed along by wind in sometimes shifting directions, leaving a smoothed path etched in the earth behind them. No human has ever witnessed the phenomenon, thus creating controversy as to how it could happen.



A visitor to this playa may sense a feeling of isolation resulting purely from the challenge of getting there.