Is it possible to travel by boat between the South Pacific Islands?

Hi guys,

So I have this dream and it involves travelling on a ship or a boat across to the Pacific Islands. My idea would be to take a cargo ship or other commercial vessel. I'll be in New Zealand so I figured I could start from either Auckland or Wellington ports. Does anyone know if this is at all possible, and if so, where is the best place to begin a search for suitable carriers/vessels? Is there a better port to begin, such as Singapore for example?

Would really appreciate any pointers.

Thanks!

Hi bomburtraveller,

You might want to take a look at the FAQ thread. This is extremely difficult to do--cargo ships don't generally run on a fixed schedule, you have to have many months of free time, and there is a strong element of luck (starting your travel at the right place at the right time). Also, whether they have room for passengers is a crapshoot as well.

Another difficulty--the cargo ships generally don't seem to connect different pacific countries in any predictable fashion.

Several people have commented over the years of having luck becoming crew on someone's private boat. If you having boating experience, that might be an option.

Good luck with your trip planning, and please post if you do find a way to make it happen--I know many who would like to join in!

In French Polynesia a law regulating pasengers onboard freight ships, set the demands for insurance so high that all ships stopped taking passengers from that day on. This happened a few years back.

The boats I'm takilng about, are the freighters going between the islands.

Out of curiosity (not out of intention) I asked around when I was on Fiji. As said above, options are limited to nonexistent for commercial freighters, for various reasons. It's more common these days for container ships to have a few berths available for paying customers, and it's not cheap. It doesn't exactly fit the dream of vagabond wandering around the open seas.

Browse this site for ideas and options:
http://www.freighter-travel.com/

Getting a ride on a private yacht is also "possible" but even more of a chance endeavor .. with you just happening to be in the right port when someone just happens to be looking around for crew or paying passenger. Most private yachties aren't interested. Moreover, you'll be tied to specific itineraries that they follow. You might be surprised by how structured the timings of their ports of call can be.

I have no link, but I do recall reading a post by one of those lucky few who mentioned seasonal yacht departures from LA heading for South Pacific. There was apparently a website where people advertised rides available. But this wasn't island hopping, more like a one-off just to get to a S Pacific destination.

You might want to rethink the dream .. what the point of it is, what you want to accomplish by it. Either that, or have time and money on your side.

There's a guy that says he has been to all sovereign countries in the world arriving (and exiting) by land or sea. You could take a look at the web of the project to know the way he reached the countries in the Pacific, they way he planned to reach some of them... It could give you some tips.

Thanks guys. That's some really good food for thought and information. If I am able to progress it further, I'll be sure to post the ways I accomplished it.