The Hokule’a arrived in Cape Town, South Africa early this morning — marking the halfway point of its worldwide voyage.

The crew will spend the next week in CapeTown, with a formal arrival ceremony planned for Saturday. A delegation of about 60 Hawaii educators, students and families will join the crew for activities throughout the week, including canoe tours and school visits.

The voyaging canoe arrived between 4 a.m. and 5 a.m. Hawaii time (4 p.m. to 5 p.m. in South Africa).

Hokule’a will go into dry dock for two weeks after the visit to Cape Town, then depart across the Atlantic Ocean for the first time to South America.

The double-hulled, voyaging canoe left Hawaii in May 2014 on an 18,000 mile trek across the Pacific and Indian oceans. It is expected to return home in 2017.

For up-to-date information on the voyage, visit www.hokulea.com/africa and view the Polynesian Voyaging Society’s live tracking map at www.hokulea.com/track-the-voyage