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Story: Pacific migrations

The Hōkūle‘a

Video file

Watch footage of the replica canoe Hōkūle‘a arriving in Hawaii in 1987 after a two-year voyage during which the vessel sailed nearly 26,000 kilometres from Hawaii to the Society Islands, the Cook Islands, New Zealand, Tonga, Samoa, and back to Hawaii via Aitutaki, Tahiti and Rangiroa in the Tuamotu Archipelago.

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TVNZ Television New Zealand

Reference: P50803

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How to cite this page

Geoff Irwin, Pacific migrations – East to the empty Pacific, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/video/1779/the-hokulea (accessed 11 June 2026).

Story by Geoff Irwin, published 4 March 2009, updated 8 February 2017.