Tonga to New Zealand

Warren & Erica Cook

We did it! This passage completes our Pacific journey. Our 15 days at sea included 10 days waiting in Minerva Reef waiting on the right weather window to cross to New Zealand and the wait was worth it. We had one of the most beautiful crossings with ideal conditions. Most have said this crossing can be challenging and rough and cold but we definitely did not have that! Okay well, just a little colder than we are used to 🥶 In Minerva we were close to running out food, so we found us some BIG crawfish (lobsters). We hosted for sundowners on Va with the whole anchorage who were also waiting to cross to NZ. Minerva is also called the parking lot and I see why now 🅿️ Since Minerva has no land, we had to wait until low tide to get a little exercise and stretch the legs. Then leaving Minerva we hooked a massive yellowfin tuna. Dropping sails to reel it in, it took nearly an hour! The fish weighted as much as me, 55kg! So our food shortage was no longer an issue for the remainder of the passage. Conditions were so ideal that we had sushi rolls at sea;) 🍣 Crew was in very high spirits! We napped, we played cards (the boys will likely never play gin rummy with me ever again- they had no chance of winning). Combined we read 10 books underway 📚 Seeing land is always such a sweet sight after days at sea, finally something to look at aside from miles and miles of ocean blue. We’re excited to be in New Zealand and we will continue to explore, but this time with our land yacht! 🚐