Hōkūleʻa returns to the shores of Aotearoa after 40 years

Hōkūleʻa returns to the shores of Aotearoa after 40 years

Soana Aholelei | Reporter / Director

Storied Hawaiian voyaging canoe Hōkūleʻa has returned to Aotearoa 40 years after making her historic journey to these shores.

The Hōkūleʻa was accompanied by another Hawaiian vaka, Hikianalia, at Ōrākei last week where they were welcomed by Ngāti Whātua.  

The Hōkūleʻa and Hikianalia are on the Moananuiākea Voyage around the Pacific which began from the shores of Hawaii back in May.

They arrived in Aotearoa after a 17-day voyage from the Cook Islands and were welcomed in Waitangi in the Bay of Islands before heading to Auckland.

Captain and navigator on Hikianalia is Native Hawaiian Kalā Baybayan-Tanaka, who is following in the footsteps of her late father Pwo Navigator Kālepa Baybayan who was on the first Hōkūleʻa voyage to Aotearoa 40 years ago.

“I just, I feel like he’s here with us. And I’m meeting people that have shared stories that just remember him. And they’ve met my father. And so for me, it’s just like it fills my heart,”  Captain Baybayan-Tanaka says. 

The Hōkūleʻa and Hikianalia will spend six months in Aotearoa for maintenance and repairs while they wait out the South Pacific hurricane season.

The crew will return from Hawai’i and continue the Moananuiākea Voyage in April or May 2026, sailing on to Tonga, Samoa, and American Samoa, followed by Melanesia and Micronesia in the latter part of the year weather permitting.