Tahiti to New Zealand

Hi there,

I'm flying down to Tahiti from Hawaii in July 2013 and was wondering if there were any boat companies that sail from Tahiti to the Cook Islands and across to Fiji or New Zealand?

Time is not really an issue, as I'm in no rush, but thought there may be ways to sail across, visiting various islands on the way. I know this is not a regular travelling route, but that's why I'm doing it!

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

You would need either a cruise boat, a yacht or possibly a cargo boat. There is no regular service between different island countries.
There is a fairly recent thread on this branch about a round-the-world traveller, who found this island-hopping was difficult. (I can't post the link from this computer, but will later, if you haven't replied)

If you could post me the link that would be excellent. It's looking far trickier than I imagined. I've read that I'll need to get a flight from Tahiti to the Cook Islands as there is no boat service.

It's almost putting me off doing it a bit, but I'm pretty sure with a bit of pre planning it can be done.

Thanks a lot

This is the link
Not good news, I am afraid.

Often people with yachts take on crew, and that is probably the only way. There was a boat that was doing trips to Pitcairn island and they had some other options too. It is called Pacific expeditions I think.

That link takes me to some guys website who travelled the world, but no mention of Tahiti when I typed it into the web pages search tool?

Thanks Api, I'll check it out. It's strange how this route appears to be so difficult. I would have thought with the beauty of French Polynesia and the South Pacific as a whole, more people would be looking to do this more regularly

The story outlines the futility of trying to travel between any two countries in the Pacific by sea transport.

Could be a business there in itself! Guess it's not really a backpacker friendly destination. Backpacker's have feeling too you know French Polynesia!!

I think I'm gonna try it anyway. Guess I'll have to fly from Tahiti to the Cook islands and take it from there. Worse case is I'll have to keep flying around which is not ideal, but I will see those places whether they like it or not!

Edited by: s1inky

When you get there, you will get a sense of just how vast the Pacific really is, and most of it is water. The people can't afford inter-country travel and there is a limited tourism industry, so there is really not enough demand to provide sea transport between countries, (apart from cruise ships which only stop in each port for a day) now that there are planes.

I guess I had some sort of romantic idealism that I could sail around the South Pacific island hopping from place to place whenever the mood took me.

Reality bites! I'll look into the flight options, but thanks for all your help guys.

I lived in Tonga for a bit and did meet people doing this - but always crewing on yachts. In the Vava'u Islands of Tonga there is a good yachting community and people looking to crew would go there. Still won't allow you to be spontaneous and go when and where you feel like it though.

Being part of a crew on a yacht was definitely something I was considering, but god knows how I go about applying for a position. I'm sure with a bit of online searching there's bound to be a website somewhere!

In Tonga there used to be weekly yacht races, followed by drinks etc. The people who I met who were interested in crewing, used to just hang out in such places and ask around.