Hokule‘a, the traditional voyaging canoe from Hawaii, continues to push farther south than it’s ever been — and its crews continue to explore more of their seafaring roots as they sail down the New Zealand coast.

The double-hulled vessel departed Auckland on Friday (Thursday in Hawaii) in light wind and calm seas for Wellington, New Zealand, launching the sixth international leg of the "Malama Honua" ("Care for Our Earth") voyage — a risky canoe odyssey around the world.

"It’s stunningly beautiful," pwo (master) navigator Kalepa Bay­ba­yan said via satellite phone Friday shortly after departure, describing the chilly Pacific nation’s coastline from Hoku­le‘a’s deck. "We’ve never been this far south before. This is new ground we’re covering. It’s pretty exciting."

Baybayan, one of the Malama Honua voyage’s key leaders, will serve as a co-captain on this latest leg along with his fellow pwo navigator and the Polynesian Voyaging Society’s president, Nai­noa Thompson.

Hokule‘a emulates the ancient Polynesian canoes that helped settle the vast reaches of the Pacific hundreds of years ago. Its crews are using the canoe’s six-month stay in New Zealand to reconnect with the local Maori community there and to explore the traditions and practices that their cultures share.

Several Maori leaders, including Heke­nu­ku­mai ("Uncle Hector") Busby, pwo navigator Jacko Thatcher, Stanley Conrad and Hotu­roa Kerr helped to revive New Zealand’s own lost canoe voyaging tradition after Hoku­le‘a’s first visit there nearly 30 years ago.

Wellington, which is New Zealand’s capital city, is on the bottom-most part of the country’s North Island. On its way there, Hoku­le‘a plans to make a stop first at the upper tip of the South Island.

While on South Island, Hoku­le‘a crews plan to travel to the Golden Bay region. A 20-foot hull section of an estimated 600-year-old canoe, or waka, was discovered there about two years ago. That ancient voyaging canoe was believed to have come from somewhere in Polynesia because on the hull is a sea turtle carved in relief.

Thompson became the first Hawaiian in what’s believed to be about 600 years to navigate a voyaging canoe from Hawaii to Tahiti without using modern navigation tools such as a compass. Instead, he relied on the stars, directions of the swells and calculations in his head as part of traditional wayfinding.

Joining Thompson and Bay­ba­yan on this New Zealand leg will be several return-crew members from previous Malama Honua legs. They include apprentice wayfinding navigators Austin Kino, Jason Patterson and Lehua Kamalu. Also returning is Timi Gilliom, captain of the Lahaina-based Mo‘o­kiha o Pi‘i­lani voyaging canoe and a key watch captain during Malama Honua’s Samoa leg.

A Maori crew member, Nikau Hin­din, will also be aboard.

This will be the first Malama Honua leg where Hoku­le‘a’s companion canoe, Hiki­ana­lia, won’t serve as the escort vessel. Hiki­ana­lia will instead stay behind in Auckland, awaiting its previously scheduled repairs. In Hiki­ana­lia’s place, the Tranquility, a sailboat equipped with power, will serve as escort. Tranquility also accompanied the canoes during their previous leg last year in New Zealand.

When Hokule‘a embarks for the Indian Ocean this spring, Hiki­ana­lia is scheduled to return to Hawaii and spend about a year sailing around the island chain, conducting research sails with educators and others in the local community to as far north as the French Frigate Shoals and as far south as the underwater seamount Loihi.

PVS also plans for Hiki­ana­lia to head north to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, then sail east to the U.S. West Coast and to eventually meet Hoku­le‘a at the Panama Canal, where it will then accompany the canoe on the final Malama Honua stretch through the Pacific Ocean.