After relying solely on traditional navigation knowledge and methods, kaumoana on Ngāhiraka Mai Tawhiti made landfall at the Sāmoan village of Poutasi, Falealili, on Wednesday afternoon.
In a debrief interview with voyaging legend Jack Thatcher, kaumoana Teira Tohu, who lead the journey for the Niue to Sāmoa leg spoke about the journey and the challenges they faced.
“A lot of the estimations and planning that went into my leg just comes from a lot of the things that you’ve seen over the years and especially in the last four months and so that was very helpful, chief,” he said.
The crew of nine kaumoana left Aotearoa on the 24th of September, completing the approximately 1,557-nautical-mile journey. Sailing from Tauranga to Auckland, then on to Rangitāhua (Kermadec Island) and on to Niue, then to Upolu, Sāmoa.
“For the last two weeks, we had cloud cover, and I was used to that, but last night, when we see the glow and (know) we’re almost here, it was the brightest, starry night this whole voyage. It was definitely a good sign,” Tohu said.
“For the first night we didn’t have a sunset so that was kind of hard, I thought you would be able to see a glow and estimate, but the sky lit up in red and in the morning it was hard seeing the sun rise”
Speaking to Radio Polynesia, Jack Thatcher said he’d been working with the crew for ten years in preparation for trip.
“I remember the day I told them I wasn’t coming, and it was one of the oh my God moments. But they soon came to realise that I was giving them a chance to be able to make decisions for themselves without having to look to me”.
He adds that the trip home will be similar but will leave Samoa for Tonga then back to Rangitahua and will land in Auckland in the coming weeks.
