The sight of three ocean-going rigged waka heading out on to the Pacific Ocean will be an unexpected bonus for hundreds of Art Deco week visitors in Napier at about noon today.
Locally-based Te Matau a Maui has been joined by the Samoan Voyaging Society's Va'a Gaualofa and Te Toki Voyaging Trust's Haunui, which arrived yesterday.
With a farewell planned for 9am today at the waka mooring beside West Quay, all three, with crew totalling 42 and including 16 on Te Waka a Maui, are expected to sail about midday for the New Zealand Festival highlight A Waka Odyssey in Wellington.
There is an expected test along the way, but it should be plain sailing for some of the modern-day mariners who have voyaged hundreds of thousands of kilometres over recent years retracing the steps of intrepid ancestors across the oceans.
Te Matau a Maui captain Raihania Tipoki said conditions to Wellington (Whanganui a Tara) were expected to deteriorate around Cape Palliser, and it was likely the craft would have to anchor for a day, probably off White Rock, to the north of the Cape.