Stories of the Moananuiākea Voyage
Nā Moʻolelo Moananuiākea shares stories, connections, culture, and voices of the communities Hōkūleʻa and Hikianalia visit during their 47 month, 43,000 nautical mile Moananuiākea Voyage. Each episode highlights a place, its moʻolelo (stories), the people who call it home, and the deep connection to the ocean. It also shares experiences of crew members celebrating the rich traditions and knowledge of the Pacific.
Kealaikahiki
“When we sail to Tahiti, we know that we’re on that path. We travel that road, we travel that path that hundreds of canoes over a thousand plus years have traveled.”
Navigator Bruce Blankenfeld reflects on Kealaikahiki – its history, cultural significance, and the responsibility to protect this ancestral road. Hōkūleʻa, Hikianalia, and crews recently retraced this path during the relaunch of the Moananuiākea Voyage in June 2025—nearly 50 years after Hōkūleʻa’s maiden voyage to Tahiti.
Doldrums
“Doldrums is a state of mind”
– Pwo Navigator Bruce Blankenfeld
Pwo Navigator Bruce Blankenfeld reflects on the infamous Doldrums known also known as the Intertropical Convergence Zone. Known for light and variable winds punctuated by powerful squalls, and often thick cloud cover, the area often presents a navigational and endurance challenge for voyagers. Having been on multiple voyages through the Doldrums, Bruce has state that “it is always so different.”
Avana
Avana, Rarotonga, Cook Islands
Avana is Hōkūleʻaʻs and Hikianaliaʻs safe harbor in Rarotonga, Cook Islands, where its voyaging tradition dates back centuries. Crew members visited a monument of stones, the first of which was brought from Hawaiʻi on Hōkūleʻaʻs maiden voyage to the Cook Islands in 1985. By 1992, more voyaging canoes were built in Polynesia and each brought a stone from their home.
“If you take a stone from your land and you put it down on another land, youʻre connecting not only yourself, youʻre connecting your ʻāina to the ʻāina that you reach.” – Tua Pittman, Pwo Navigator, Cook Islands
Pwo Navigator Bruce Blankenfeld talks of arriving in the Cook Islands in 1985. He tells the story of the monument of 7 stones placed there 6 centuries ago, one for each voyaging canoe that departed for Aotearoa.
“Just learning about that, seeing those stones and understanding that, it made voyaging a lot more tangible, a lot more real. For me it took it out of the realm of just a story and somewhat connection to our past and culture, to a direct connection.” – Bruce Blankenfeld, Pwo Navigator, Hawaiʻi
Tautira to Rarotonga
Tautira, Papeʻetē, Tahiti to Rarotonga, Cook Islands
Reflections from Hikianalia Captain Kaleo Wong, Pwo Navigator Bruce Blankenfeld, Hōkūleʻa navigator Kaʻiulani Murphy and three with deep roots in their destination of Rarotonga:
Tua Pittman, Pwo Navigator, Cook Islands:
“I look forward to bringing my canoe family to meet my family on the island of Rarotonga.”
Peia Patai, Pwo Navigator, Cook Islands:
“Itʻs that important piece that weʻve been starving for all these years so Hōkūleʻa brought it for us.”
Kamaki Worthington, Hōkūleʻa Captain, Hawaiʻi, Cook Islands is his motherʻs homeland:
“If you really look at all of these islands, weʻre the same.”
Hikianalia
Many may not know that Hikianaliaʻs birthplace was in Aotearoa nearly 14 years ago. She serves as a communication hub, education platform and Hōkūleʻaʻs safety vessel. She was named Hikianalia after the star that rises with Hōkūleʻa in the latitude of Hawaiʻi and both waʻa kaulua are sailing together on the Moananuiākea Voyage.
Mahalo nui Hikianalia for keeping Hōkūleʻa safe.
Kalā Baybayan-Tanaka
A new generation. A family legacy of voyaging.
A second-generation voyager, watch captain, and navigator aboard Hikianalia, Kalā Baybayan-Tanaka sailed the very path voyages by her late father, Pwo Navigator Chad Kālepa Baybayan. Kālepa’s first voyage on Hōkūle’a was in 1980 and he sailed many after, including this same leg to Aotearoa during the 1985 Voyage of Rediscovery and again in 2014 for the Mālama Honua Worldwide Voyage.
A key captain and navigator for the Polynesian Voyaging Society, Kālepa helped lay the foundation for the generations of voyagers who sail today.
Now, from father to daughter, that ʻike continues as the Leg 15 crew successfully pulled Aotearoa from the sea on November 6th, 2025.
Bora Bora
Challenging and shifting winds delayed Hōkūleʻa, Hikianalia, and the crews’ departure from Bora Bora. Despite the delay, the extra time became an opportunity to listen, learn, and strengthen relationships with the people and sacred places of Bora Bora that so graciously welcomed and hosted them.
The crew was welcomed to visit sacred places and marae, including Farerua, where they gave offerings and paid their respects, as well as the divine pōhaku Tumu Iti, which is connected to the spirit of Taʻaroa and origin stories.
Guided by the cultural organization Te Fare Hiroʻa no Vavau, the crew traveled into the mountains of Vaitape to visit sacred sites such as Te Ofaʻi Honu and Te Pu a Matariʻi. There, organization president Anatole Teraaietepo shared that the spirits of the ancestors live on through the names of the pōhaku. As Captain Bruce Blankenfeld reflected, “by saying those names, the kūpuna continue to walk the land.”
Through these places, stories, and relationships, the crew began to see the many layers of genealogy woven throughout Bora Bora. A genealogy of ʻohana, waʻa, language, ʻāina, and relationships that connect us across Moananuiākea.
Māuruuru roa to our Bora Bora ʻohana for hosting, caring for, and sharing your ʻāina, moʻolelo, with Hōkūleʻa, Hikianalia, and our crews