Watched by invited guests, the wakas and voyagers were blessed by the kaumatua and minister Takutai Wikiriwhi, before the skippers took part in a kava ceremony with waka kaumatua Hekemukumai Busby.
Four of the waka then left the Viaduct Basin and sailed down the harbour to salute their wellwishers, before heading over to Devonport.
Hoturoa Kerr, chief of the Haunui waka, told NZPA he had a core crew of sailors on board from all around the Pacific Islands, who had been sailing for the past 30 years.
"Everybody is keen and excited and raring to go. We've just got to the wait for the right winds now and then we're hoping to set off on Friday evening."
Mr Kerr said that the organisers were trying to get out the environmental message to the rest of the world, that the impact of a lot of the industrialised nations was really negative on the Pacific Ocean.
"We've got people here whose islands have been covered by rising water levels and their fishing grounds are no longer as abundant.
"We trying to raise awareness to people who live thousands of miles away that what they do affects ordinary people who are, in some cases, subsistence living."
Mr Kerr said the waka were very eco-friendly running on solar energy.
"We're fully stocked up with supplies to last us all the way to Hawaii. Hopefully we'll catch heaps of fish, but we've stocked up with a lot of canned goods and locally produced organic food.
The five waka from New Zealand will voyage across the Pacific from New Zealand to Hawaii via French Polynesia (Tuamotus, Marquesas) meeting up in Tahiti with two more waka in Tahiti from the Cook Islands and Tahiti.
Mr Kerr said they expected to arrive in Hawaii by the first week of June.
In Hawaii, the waka crews would attend the Kava Bowl Ocean Summit 2011 which would include discussions among an international mix of scientists, academics, practitioners, media, political and corporate leaders to create ideas about moving toward sustainable use of marine resources and services.
The second phase of the journey would start in mid July, when some of the waka will sail on to North America via San Francisco and then down the west coast to San Diego.
The waka will then return via the Cocos Islands, Galapagos, French Polynesia, Cook Islands, Samoa, Tonga, Fiji and ultimately to Honiara, Solomon Islands for the 11th Pacific Arts Festival in 2012.
The voyage will be the subject of a documentary film, and Dieter Paulmann, the film's executive producer, will travel along with them.
"We are embarking on an extraordinary journey that brings together culture and consciousness as never before. For the first time ever, seven Pacific Island crews will sail a fleet of traditional Polynesian voyaging canoes (equipped with solar powered motors) across thousands of miles of open ocean. They'll map their way in the wake of their ancestors, using the stars, sun, wind, and wildlife as their guides. As we travel along will them, we come to experience first-hand, the power and the plight of our greatest ocean - the Pacific," Mr Paulmann said.
The film is scheduled for theatrical release in 2013.
