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Hey guys, no sailing in this one, just a quick challenge to eat rotten fish.

We've been having a trial of this 40ft Lagoon in French Polynesia. Exploring some of the beautiful islands for Josh's Mum's 80th Birthday! On this episode we head to Huahine our favorite island to explore.

Over two days we really cover all of what Bora Bora offers. Whales, sharks, dolphins and coral with loads of fish. We hit the quad bikes and explore off road around the island and then sail off to a new island. We also get a little bit closer to understanding what we want for our new boat.

We are narrowing in on our next boat purchase. This time our family charter a Lagoon 40 Catamaran in French Polynesia. On this episode we check out the well known hot spot, Bora Bora. In typical Nikau fashion we are able to get off the well beaten tourist track and show you the real Bora Bora. Some great family times!

We had an incredible time sailing with our big extended family, checking out what Australia's Whitsunday Islands had on offer. We did this charter to test if we want to buy a Catamaran next time over, so on this episode, as well as the usual explore, we run through some of the pros and cons of catamarans vs sailing a monohull.

The Whitsunday Islands are the prized charter destination in Australia if not one of the best in the world. Because we have had the experience of sailing full time to some of the most remote spots all over the globe, we take the opportunity to compare charter boat sailing to the life style of a full time live aboard. This is our quest this year, to charter a few catamarans and see what all the fuss is all about before we buy Nikau 2.0. I hope you enjoy traveling with our new crew as much as we did!

There isn't much on the tube about how to finance your dream sailing adventures. What we do is certainly achievable for most people. We explain how we do it as we adventure around the South Island of New Zealand.

After a few years of land-based adventure the Nikau crew are back on the water. We touch base with everyone with a catch up. Do the normal exploring, fishing and beach BBQ action. In this season we prepare to buy our new boat to start sailing full time again. We will run through how we financially prepare and fund our adventures. We also have to make the big decision, monohull or catamaran? We have 2 charters planned with catamarans, one in Australia and another in Tahiti revisiting some of our favorite cruising grounds. Come and adventure with us. Remember we are always here to help other families with their adventures and Josh and Jaz love speaking in churches and events.

Final episode for Nikau this season, we have seen and done so much in Fiji and made such good friends along the way. In this episode we visit some of the 'must see' spots of the Yasawa Islands, the Blue Lagoon (made famous by that movie, yes that's the one) and incredible underwater caves. A Sailing Nikau video wouldn't be quite complete without some yummy beach BBQ cooking and we find the most picture perfect beach at the tip of the Yasawas to do this as well as some sweet underwater snorkeling. Finally we must say goodbye to our community of 3 boats, our buddies Wanderer and Sula 2 have become like family over these last two months as we have circumnavigated Fiji together, it's one of the best things about boating, the close friends you make, but also the hardest when its time to sail in different directions. Hopefully its just goodbye for now as we will re-connect one day when we are all back in New Zealand. Thanks for watching our videos and don't forget to get in touch if you are interested in buying Nikau! Boat Your Video: https://youtu.be/prGWwPKGZW4 Listing Details: https://au.yachtworld.com/yacht/2011-bavaria-cruiser-50-7980424/

Exploring the well travelled western side of Fiji is beautiful with lots of sites to see. We check out Fiji's best surf spots and then head up through the Yasawa group. We stop off at Tom Hanks and Willson's beach from the movie "Castaway" and find our own hidden beach to try some awesome fire to fork cooking. To top it all off we then have some incredible manta snorkelling followed by Fiji jungle trekking and we find the elusive underwater plane from WW2, this episode has it all!! To buy a copy of Fire to Fork cookbook check out these links (NZ stockist) https://www.thenile.co.nz/books/harry-fisher/fire-to-fork/9780648464631 or the website www.exploringedenbooks.com/shop/fire-to-fork

We have what you might call a series of unfortunate events in this episode - a small bite on Josh's leg turns into a big problem forcing us to make an emergency call to Maritime New Zealand seeking medical help, we go on overnight passage seeking a doctor and the weather turns bad, at the same time a part on our motor fails!!! Lots of drama! Stay tuned til the end of this video for some BIG news for Nikau......

The outer most islands in Fiji, Vulaga & Ogea are hands down, heaven on earth! The village was a great cultural visit with beautiful friendly people. The diving is next level. And of course, the blue water lagoons are the best we have ever seen. We are getting very low on food but loving life and the company of other sailors in the tropical wilderness!

We are heading down the Lau group (Fiji) a scattering of islands, atolls and blue lagoons that few ever visit because of the remoteness. Needless to say the fishing is BIG and the diving spectacular!

Regarded as one of Fiji's "must see" place the beautiful Bay of Islands in the Lau group does not disappoint. Hundreds of mushroom shaped, lava rock islands are dotted through turquoise waters, reminding us more of places like Thailand than your typical Pacific island beaches. We made the most of the shelter rafting up with the crew of 3 kiwi boats we are cruising with, exploring all the area has to offer both underwater and on land, we discover amazing corals, gorgeous hidden beaches and lush plantations on land.

The Rainbow Reef is home to some of the best diving in the world. Bella gets her PADI dive license here (yes we know she should have had it already!) She passes in record time and is able to do "The great white wall" a very advanced dive (known as one of the most beautiful dives in the world) for her first licensed dive. We do some island hopping to the private island of Matagi that is in a book entitled "1000 places to see before you die" and of course the usual beach BBQ and fishing fun!

We continue to explore the seldom visited north coast of Vanua Levu as well as the gorgeous remote island of Yadua (amazing underwater playground). We finally have some success with fishing and return to Savusavu just in time for the cruisers festival hosted by Copra Shed marina, getting amongst it with lots of other sailing families and fun activities!

Let's go where most people don't! That's how we like to sail anyway. So when people told us that the north side of the second largest island in Fiji was rarely visited we were curious to check it out. It certainly didn't disappoint. We never thought we'd see a turtle hatch and take it's first swim. Maybe only with an organized tour at best! So going ashore for a beach BBQ on a remote sand spit, and to bump into this little guy was unreal! The huge sharks, the mantas, lobster and locals made this side of the island way better!

We've seen coral all over the world, Fiji hit's the top of our list straight away. It's encouraging to see so many healthy reefs and amazing biodiversity. On this episode we free dive the rainbow reef, exploring this underwater playground. We find these amazing lava tubes you can slide down and hike to 3 huge waterfalls. We are having a blast and are overwhelmed by all the different islands you can sail to in this enormous cruising ground called Fiji!

This dangerous section of ocean between New Zealand and Fiji must be treated respectfully when choosing a weather window. Unfortunately our small safe window was upwind, which means a painfully slow course, extreme fast speeds over water, bashing into big waves and of course the yacht on it's side for 8 days! Come aboard on this episode and get a feel for what it is like heading offshore and living at sea.