Five Tauranga sailors are on their way to Easter Island on two double hulled voyaging wakas on an epic 19,000km journey.

Tauranga based navigator Jack Thatcher is the skipper of Ngahiraka, which he's had based in Tauranga for the last nine months.

One of the traditional kauri waka now headed for Rapanui.

Kiharoa Nuku, and Mahara Nicholas are senior crew, watch captains, and Ani Black and Cushla Allen are two new crew.

Two Tauranga crew, Tamahau Tangitu, and Kuka Tukaokao, will also join the crew for the return voyage.

The crew will sail a return trip of 10,000 nautical miles without GPS or modern navigational tools in a bid to retrace and revitalise the steps of their ancestors.

This epic journey has been 20 years in the making and is attracting global academic, scientific and media attention.

The expedition, named Waka Tapu (sacred canoe), is organised by the New Zealand Maori Arts & Crafts Institute in partnership with Te Taitokerau Tārai Waka.

The voyage aims to close the final corner of the Polynesian Triangle, a triangle defined by Hawaii in the North, New Zealand in the South and Rapanui in the East.

'Some historians believe the ancestors of Maori discovered this country by accident,” says New Zealand Maori Arts & Crafts Institute Director, Karl Johnstone.

'There's no doubt their voyages to and from New Zealand were deliberate and planned; the Pacific Ocean was a highway, not a barrier as many of us see it today.

'They compiled star maps, traded knowledge, studied the flight path of birds, the migration patterns of whales, and used tidal movements and other environmental indicators to reach their destination safely and accurately. And that's what we will emulate.”

The journey is in three legs says navigator Jack Thatcher.

The first leg is about 2300 nautical miles to Tubuwai in the Austral group, and from there up to Mangareva in French Polynesia before taking the third 1400nm leg to East Island.

Favourable winds should see them back home by Christmas. If they get delayed they will probably leave the waka in Rarotonga for the cyclone season.