New Caledonia to New Zealand: A Surprisingly Happy Sail!

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Some passages are memorable for their wild seas, howling winds, and tales of survival. Others are memorable because nothing much went wrong! And after leaving beautiful New Caledonia for New Zealand, we were delighted to have the latter.  Come along with us as we have a lovely sail across the Pacific.

Note:  As you know, our blog posts usually run 6-8 weeks behind live events.  However, I inserted this update in true time so you know where we are now, New Zealand.  Our blog posts will resume tomorrow from New Caledonia until they catch up with us 🙂

Our passage treated us to light winds, favorable seas, and sunny skies. Sugar Shack sailed along happily, the weather cooperated, and Mother Nature seemed to have decided we’d earned a little kindness.

We happily repaid her kindness with some Citizens of the Sea Sampling three times a day, every day.

Ideal Conditions

Now, those of you who follow our adventures know that I’m not exactly the poster child for enjoying a rolling ocean. I get seriously seasick, so a passage with gentle conditions and sunshine is about as close to sailing paradise as I can get. No dramatic waves, no wrestling with the elements, and—best of all—far less time negotiating with my stomach!

Of course, even an easy passage requires watchkeeping, navigation, and keeping an eye on the weather. But when the seas are friendly and the skies are blue, it’s a whole lot easier to appreciate the magic of life at sea.

Navigating at night always keeps us on high alert.

And just like that, our New Caledonian adventure gave way to the familiar comforts of New Zealand. We arrived grateful for a safe, pleasant passage and reminded once again that sometimes the best sailing stories are the ones where the ocean lets you enjoy the ride.

Matt hoisting the yellow quarantine flag.

Matt and I sailed from New Caledonia to New Zealand in 5.5 days with an average boat speed of 6.4kts.  We crossed the Pacific Ocean in early October 2026.

Out blog posts typically run 6-8 weeks behind live events.  However, I inserted this into our schedule so you know where we are now.

Our blog posts will continue in New Caledonia – but rest assured, we are in New Zealand.

Matt near a Mat on Ilot Mathieu

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We find a beautiful and secluded spot called Uitoe Bay.  It is just off the mainland of Grande Terre and in front of Ilot Mathieu. 

Sugar Shack enjoys this sweet spot all to ourselves.

We had calm conditions despite the winds blowing between 20-35kts from the SE.

All around us are stunning turquoise waters.

 

Ilot Mathieu

We took the dinghy over to the neighboring Ilot to do some exploring.  We anchored Sweetie on the north side of the island where there was a beautiful 3 mile stretch to wander.

There was not much of a “beach.”  The shoreline was covered in rocks, coral, and shells.

Strangely enough, there were lots of cacti on the shoreline as well.  This is the second place we’ve seen cactus by the shore.  

It seems so out of place!

But even the cactus can’t take the beauty away from this little Ilot.

And Matt finds a mat on Ilot Mathieu.

Find Ilot Mathieu on No Foreign Land.

Always discover our location by following us on No Foreign Land.

Our blog posts run 4-6 weeks behind actual live events.

We anchored at Uitoe around mid-August 2026.

Here we go again. Day 5 and Arrival

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Another gorgeous day for sailing. Day break the wind started building, up go the sails and off to the races. A perfect 10-12kts from the west now. Everyone loves beam reach.. The light winds and direction change, means the seas were also very kind. Zoom Zoom on to New Zealand we go.

Drug the lines for a bit, until the boat speed was touching 8kts and above. Nothing small is going to catch the lure at those speeds and certainly didn’t feel like slowing down just to have to clean a fish, even with another Mahi being reported by boats behind us. 🙂

Final sunset.

The final sunset, was beautiful. We still had a long night and a time change to deal with. We lost 2 hrs, so our midnight arrival was really going to be 2am on Kiwi time.

Preparing quarantine flag for arrival, just before sunset.

As we were just approaching the BOI (Bay of Islands) the wind pipped up, which is opposite of normal. Normally it gets softer at near the bay, so that last bit of sleep was put on hold while speed was up. With the auto pilot still being a bit finicky it seemed prudent to be near the helm just in case he decided he needed break after 6 long days of 24/7 service. It was a good call, as he tried to take a break a few times during the final miles ..

Yellow “Q” flag, says we haven’t been cleared into country, immigration/ health / bio security/ customs.

Now that we were close enough, starlink data was full on, no longer billable by Gigabyte. I did a quick google search on the Autopilot issue, and the suspicion was correct, time for a new RAM or at least a maintenance project. It seems the ram is supposed to be sent into get serviced every 1000 hours, and with our 40,000 miles we were well past service at 8000 hrs, who knew. So guess what gets service/updated in NZ, and of course a spare brother picked up. If you have 2 on board, you’ll never need the spare, or so goes the theory.

Arrived dock at 2am, with next to no wind, perfect for negotiating the dock in the dark, spinning around 180 and getting tied up. By 3am we were settled, and finally had a cold beer before the ever too short sleep before customs / immigration / biosecurity arrived. Super efficient and we were cleared to leave the Q dock an hour after the process started. Time for some more work to rinse the boat and get a proper sleep.

Save a favorite Mongolian Pork for the final push to rid the fridge of the ‘forbidden’ items.

Interesting that the only thing Biosecurity needed to remove from us in the end was a salami that we purchased in NZ before leaving that was made in Christ Church NZ. No worries, all the officers said Christine was super organized, and made the process super easy/efficient and we were done within 1 hour.

Back in the land where we read the labels, and what’s not to love about Snaka Changi marketing.

Back to the regular scheduled posts that will no doubt have a different spin on the short daily stories.

5 days, 17 hours

900 miles.

Water-maker fitting and autopilot hiccups, or bad at all for an ocean passage. Hope the next one is just as sweet.