Two Rotorua men were on board traditional Maori canoes which returned to New Zealand after a 10-month historic voyage across the Pacific Ocean on Saturday .
Haimona Brown and Te Miroa Maxwell were among 23 sailors who travelled 10,000 nautical miles from Auckland to Rapanui (Easter Island) and back in
two waka hourua (double-hulled sailing canoes) using only the stars, moon, sun, ocean currents, birds, and marine life to guide their way.
The return trip to New Zealand involved sailing via Tahiti and Rarotonga.
The Waka Tapu journey was organised by Te Puia's New Zealand Maori Arts and Crafts Institute to teach and transfer knowledge of Maori and Polynesian traditional sailing methods to future generations.
The institute's director, Karl Johnstone, said the waka's return completed a "monumental milestone" in New Zealand's modern day navigation history and recognised a life's work by waka-building expert Hekenukumai Busby who built the principal waka, Te Aurere in the early 1990s and completed the second waka, Ngahiraka Mai Tawhiti, in 2011.