All the international adventurer from Skerries wants to do now is bag the 10km Ruby Swim in Wānaka on Saturday.
Then he would be about as close to heaven as he could get in the Southern Hemisphere.
‘‘I wasn’t enjoying Alaska as much as I am here,’’ he said.
Regretfully, this weekend’s Ruby Swim event will have to stay on his to do list, as he leaves the country on the same day.
One consolation for the retired school principal and mental health charity fundraiser is he has been able to meet Wānaka’s swimming community and ‘‘do a Ruby you can do when you can’t do The Ruby’’, and kick start his training for another, much bigger, around-an-island swim — Ireland in 2026.
‘‘That is 2000km and will take me at least 100 days. I will be emulating Ross Edgley, who is nothing like me,’’ Mr Higgins said, whose last job before coming to New Zealand was to work as Santa Claus.
‘‘Ross Edgley is the only person who has ever successfully swum around Great Britain. Many people have attempted around Ireland but failed,’’ he said.
Higgins was originally doing a shortish 1000km or so cycle trip of the South Island with buddies before arriving in Wānaka last Friday, but he immediately decided cycling was a ‘‘pain in the arse’’.
‘‘As soon as I came down the hill and saw the lake, I thought ‘I am not going anywhere else’,’’ he said.
He stopped his friends in their tracks and said for him, the ride was over.
Despite his mates having itchy feet, they agreed to stay too and have been indulging in all manner of outdoor activities while Mr Higgins spends his time in quiet meditation swimming in Lake Wānaka.
He has also become a fixture at Kai Whakapai Cafe, where he convenes three times a day to swap adventure stories with whomever stops by to chat.
Mr Higgins is the author of the book He Who Swears At Bears, published in 2023 after his Yukon adventure.
His second book, Sionnan, and a film by award-winning Canadian filmmaker Kelly Armstrong, This Is Why We Swim, are due out soon.
They both relate to his experience of swimming down the Shannon, the principal river of the Republic of Ireland, last year.
‘‘Sionnan is the Irish goddess of the river. I became convinced early on there was a presence. I wasn’t swimming alone,’’ Mr Higgins said.
Mr Higgins raises funds for Pieta, an Irish suicide prevention and mental health charity.
Wānaka’s Ruby Swim is on Saturday, from 7am at Waterfall Creek. By then, Mr Higgins and friends will be in Christchurch, preparing to board their plane back to Ireland.
- Wānaka Sun
