The Bourgnon family have lived on the water for four years.
They left Brittany, France, four years ago, travelled past South America and settled for two-and-a-half years near the small island of Raiatea, in Polynesia.
Their worldwide travels have now brought the family to Tauranga, where they'll stay for about five months while work is done on their 80-foot (24 metre) catamaran.
The five-bedroom catamaran has three levels and includes separate kitchen and dining areas, a steering port and open flybridge. The boat is named Jambo, which means "hello and welcome" in Swahili.
New languages, new cultures and a different way of life is what dad Laurent Bourgnon dreamed of showing his family.
After four years on the water, his wife Caroline and four children, Lou, 7, Basile, 9, Justine, 15, and Jules, 18, are certainly getting a taste for life outside of France.
"We wanted to show the world to our kids, that's our first motivation," Mr Bourgnon said.
"And show them a different way of life, on the water, meet other cultures and learn other languages.
"This is a really nice way of life."
As a child, Mr Bourgnon spent five years on his parent's 12m monohull yacht, travelling the world. Growing up, sailing was always a passion and Mr Bourgnon has taken part in many ocean races. He's sailed with Sir Peter Blake, Sir Russell Coutts and Grant Dalton.
Mr Bourgnon designed his catamaran in Europe about seven years ago. He said it comfortably cruised at 10 knots per hour but was specifically designed to be a green machine.
"The concept of the boat is that it uses less than 15 litres [of petrol] per hour at 10 knots so that's very cheap to run for a big boat. And we've got a very long range, 11,000 miles, so that's pretty cool. This boat feels completely natural to travel on with my family and is the perfect tool for us."
Living on the boat was relatively inexpensive but the family still had costs to recoup.
In Polynesia, Mr Bourgnon hired a chef and a host and hired his boat for charters.
He said the boat needed a big refit to maintain a high standard for charter guests and he planned an upgrade while in New Zealand.
The family arrived at the top of the North Island at the end of 2011 and spent time at Cape Reinga, Opua in the Bay of Islands and Auckland's Viaduct Basin.
They bought a van and went camping in a tent around the North Island during the Christmas holidays.
Mr Bourgnon started to organise work on the boat in Whangarei but could not do all the necessary jobs in one place, he said.
So the family sailed to Tauranga and met Tauranga Bridge Marina manager Tony Arnold, who introduced them to local elite boat builder Dave Pachoud.
The boat, in berth at Tauranga Bridge Marina, is due to be lifted out of the water at Sulphur Point in the next two weeks and taken to the Pachoud Motor Yachts' sheds for work to commence. It is expected to be in the shed for about five months.
While work is being done on the boat, the family will rent in Mount Maunganui.
Mr Bourgnon said it was important for his children to keep up with their education, so while in Polynesia, Jules and Justine went to school on the island and learnt Tahitian.
Basile and Lou were taught by correspondence.
The two younger children are enrolled at Omanu Primary School and Justine is enrolled at Mount Maunganui College.
Jules left Tauranga on Sunday for Auckland, where he will spend six months in a specialised English language school.
"It will be hard because they don't know a lot of English and they're very nervous to be at a new school," Mr Bourgnon said.
From Tauranga, the Bourgnon family have no idea where the tide will take them.
"Maybe Indonesia where we can set up a charter or Australia. We might even go back to Polynesia or stay here a bit longer, we're just not sure.
"One thing that is certain though is that we will soon need to look for work," Mr Bourgnon said.
Mr Arnold said it was not common for international boats to dock in Tauranga for long periods of time.
"In the old days we used to get 25-40 a year but we don't see that anymore. In saying that, there's a lot more marinas now than there was 15 years ago."