22/10/2025
The Hokulea and Hikianalia left yesterday for Aotearoa. On board was Peia and Ngatama along with the Hawaiian crew.
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God’s Speed Hōkūleʻa and Hikianalia
After two months in the Cook Islands, the Hōkūleʻa and Hikianalia were farewelled from Avatiu Wharf yesterday as they continued on their journey to Aotearoa — Leg 15 of the Moananuiākea 50th Anniversary Voyage, celebrating fifty years of Polynesian pride, ancestral navigation, and cultural connection.
The departure marked an emotional moment for local and visiting navigators who have shared in the canoes’ time in the Cook Islands, continuing to strengthen ties between Polynesian voyaging communities.
Grand Master Navigator Peia Pātai, who is on board as a tutor and mentor for this leg of the journey, said this is the first time Hōkūleʻa has made this voyage since 1985.
There are two Cook Islanders among the crew — Pātai himself, and Ngatama Tuakanangaro from Mauke, affectionately known as Tama.
“We are so very proud of our boy from Mauke, Tama,” said Pātai. “He joined our first Teretereanga Vaka program in 2023 when he was just sixteen, and has come a long way to become one of our valued crew, reaching the rank of watch captain. This will be his second blue water voyage — his first was to Hawai‘i and back last year. This trip will be another chance for him to apply his navigation skills under the guidance of Captain and Pwo Navigator Bruce Blankenfeld.”
The voyage to Aotearoa is expected to take 12 to 15 days, depending on conditions — or, as Pātai says, “on God’s speed.” Each canoe carries a mostly Hawaiian crew — ten on one and eleven on the other — retracing an ancient Polynesian route long travelled by their ancestors.
“It’s an easy route,” said Pātai. “You’re following the wind .”
Over the past week, Pātai, who has personally sailed this route many times, has been sharing his knowledge with the younger navigators. Over the weekend, he also accompanied Polynesian Voyaging Society president Nainoa Thompson and crew members to Te Puna Marama Learning Centre in Aitutaki, where Thompson laid an ancestral rock from his homeland in Hawai‘i. The stone, from his parents’ property, was brought to the Cook Islands by Pātai following the Festival of Pacific Arts last year — symbolising the connection between voyaging peoples of Polynesia.
For Master Navigator Tua Pittman, the farewell brought both pride and reflection.
“It’s always two minds — sad to see them go, but happy that the legacy continues,” said Pittman. “Hōkūleʻa started this whole movement of making our people believe again in the brilliance of our ancestors.”
Although Pittman will not join this leg of the voyage, he will reconnect with the canoes later in Aotearoa, and again in Micronesia and Taiwan, as the Moananuiākea voyage continues to reconnect voyaging traditions across the ancestral ocean highways.
Master Navigator Hoturoa Kerr from Aotearoa outlined what lies ahead for the canoes once they arrive.
“Their first landfall will be in the Bay of Islands, clearing customs at Ōpua,” said Kerr. “On November 14, there will be a formal welcome at Te Tii Marae in Waitangi, followed by the unveiling of a carved pou the next day to commemorate the voyage. Then on November 16, they’ll sail to Auckland, where Ngāti Whātua will host a welcome at Ōkahu Bay on November 18. After a major conference in Auckland, they’ll head north again to Aurere, where Hekenukumai Busby built his wakas, before returning to Auckland for maintenance and preparations for the next leg.”
Kerr added that traditional voyaging in Aotearoa continues to thrive, with younger generations embracing the art of navigation.
“We just had a waka sail to Samoa with a group of young navigators,” he said. “It’s going really well — thCook Islands Television Newsriving.”
Both vakas are expected to come back this way in the future.
Story on Cook Islands Television News
