Time running out: get up to 25% to 35% off your shipments to the Pacific Islands in time for the holiday season

Time is running out to get your fishing gear to the Islands in time for Christmas. If you are sending nets, ropes, floats, knives, hooks, lines, lures, swivels or sinkers to Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, the Cook Islands, Niue, Tuvalu, the Solomons or New Caledonia, the shipping calendar — not the calendar on your wall — decides whether your order lands under the tree or in January. Right now you can stack up to 25% to 35% off your shipment, subject to special conditions explained below.

Why the savings are so big right now

Action Outdoors has supplied Pacific fisheries, retailers, government departments and family buyers for more than 55 years. We are New Zealand's largest fishing net manufacturer, making over 350,000 metres of ready-to-use netting every year, and we hold Island-spec gear in stock in Auckland — ready to be packed, documented and delivered to your shipping agent or air freight depot.

There are three separate savings available on an export order, and they stack:

1. Buy GST free — save 15%

Goods that are exported from New Zealand can be zero-rated for GST. That means the 15% GST simply comes off your invoice. To do that legally we need the right export documentation — the name and address of the overseas consignee, your shipping agent's booking or export delivery order, and proof the goods are leaving the country. Give us the agent's details when you order and we handle the paperwork with you. Under Inland Revenue's rules the goods must be exported within 28 days of the time of supply, so please do not book gear GST free and then leave it sitting in Auckland.

2. Free courier to your Auckland shipping agent or air freight depot

Once your order is packed we will courier it free of charge to any Auckland shipping agent, consolidation warehouse or air freight depot you nominate — Wiri, Onehunga, Penrose, Mangere, the airport freight precinct, the port. You are not paying twice to get gear across Auckland.

3. Registered Gold Card — a further 10% off

If you hold a registered SuperGold Card, we take a further 10% off. Register once with us and it applies to your order.

4. Spend over $1,250 — another 10% off

Orders over $1,250.00 attract a further 10% discount on top of the above. Marine electronics and marine winches are excluded from this discount. This is the one that turns a community or club order — a set of nets, a coil of rope, a carton of floats and a box of terminal tackle — into a genuinely cheap shipment.

Put together, that is why we can say up to 25% to 35% off, subject to special conditions. Ask us to price your list and we will show you exactly what applies.

What we can pack for the Islands

• Fishing nets — ready-to-use set nets, drag nets, bait and mullet nets, plus unslung netting by the roll in Pacific Island mesh sizes for those who rig their own.
• Fishing rope and twine — float line, lead line, anchor and mooring rope, netting twine.
• Floats and buoys — hard floats, net floats, marker buoys, sinkers and leads.
• Knives — filleting, bait and dive knives, including our Buck Knives range.
• Hooks, lines, lures, swivels and sinkers — the whole terminal tackle wall, in bulk packs as well as retail packs.
• Everything else — gaffs, spears, traps, bins, waders, tools, slings and marine hardware.

The bit most people get wrong: the cut-off, not the sailing

Cargo does not go on the ship on the day the ship leaves. Your gear has to be booked, documented, delivered to the depot and consolidated days before the vessel sails, and the LCL (part-container, or "less than container load") cut-off is normally the real deadline. Miss it by an afternoon and you wait for the next sailing — which on most Island routes is 10 days to a fortnight away, and over Christmas can be longer because some port calls are only made if there is enough cargo.

New Zealand Customs also asks for export clearance to be lodged more than 48 hours before sea loading and more than 9 hours before air loading. Your agent normally does this, but it eats a day.

Below are the current published sailings and cut-offs for the next three months. Dates are the carriers' and agents' published dates as at late August 2026 and are subject to change — always confirm the exact booking with your agent before you commit.

Sea freight: Auckland to the Islands — sailings and cut-offs

Matson South Pacific runs the main Auckland service to Tonga, Fiji, Samoa, American Samoa, the Cook Islands and Niue. Their published schedule (issued 19 August 2026) shows the Auckland LCL cut-off for each voyage and the arrival window at each port:

Note the OLOMANA rotation also calls at Niue, Vava'u and Nuku'alofa on the return leg. Voyages after mid-October are released rolling — on this route a vessel leaves Auckland roughly every 10 days, so expect further sailings in late October, November and December on the same rhythm. The November and December voyages are the Christmas ones, and they fill first.

Custom Logistic Services / Ship to Pacific consolidate LCL and personal-effects cargo out of Wiri, and publish separate truck cut-offs for Auckland and for the rest of New Zealand:

Other lines run the same waters on similar cycles: Swire Shipping sails its New Zealand – Eastern Pacific Islands service every 10 days from Auckland to Tonga, Fiji, Samoa, Tahiti, the Cook Islands and Niue, and Neptune Pacific Direct Line publishes weekly-updated New Zealand and Islands schedules covering Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu, the Solomons, Kiribati, Tuvalu, Nauru and New Caledonia. Sailings to the smaller ports — Niue, Aitutaki, Vava'u, Funafuti — are often "inducement" calls, meaning the ship only goes if there is enough cargo. On those routes, book early or you may not sail at all before Christmas.

Air freight from Auckland: when the boat is too slow

Once the sea cut-offs pass, air freight is your Christmas answer. Air New Zealand Cargo flies from Auckland to Nadi, Apia, Nuku'alofa, Rarotonga, Niue, Papeete and Noumea, with Rarotonga served daily and the main ports served several times a week; Fiji Airways, Solomon Airlines, Air Niugini and Air Vanuatu add capacity to Suva, Honiara, Port Moresby and Port Vila. What actually governs your box, though, is the consolidator's weekly cut-off. A typical Island air service looks like this:

Rule of thumb: allow 9 hours minimum for export clearance before the flight, and remember dangerous goods — certain flares, batteries and aerosols — need a completed IMO/IATA DG certificate and extra lead time. Nets, ropes, floats, knives and terminal tackle are all straightforward.

Our recommended Auckland shipping agents

These are the operators we see most often handling Island cargo out of Auckland. Book direct with them, then tell us who to deliver to — the courier leg from our Rosebank Road factory to their depot is free.

We do not take a commission from any of them — use whoever suits your island, your budget and your timeline.

Working backwards from Christmas

If you want gear on the island before 25 December, here is the honest maths:

• Sea freight, main ports (Suva, Lautoka, Apia, Nuku'alofa, Rarotonga): the depot cut-off you want is late October to mid-November. Transit is 1–3 weeks, plus customs clearance and delivery at the other end, and December sailings are the busiest of the year.
• Sea freight, outer islands (Niue, Aitutaki, Savai'i, Vava'u, Tuvalu): aim for mid-October. Inducement calls and onward barge legs can add weeks.
• Air freight: your last realistic depot cut-offs fall in the first two weeks of December. For comparison, NZ Post's South Pacific courier cut-off for pre-Christmas delivery sits around 12 December, with express around 15 December — treat those as the outer limit, not the plan.

In short: order in September and October for sea, and keep air as your backup, not your strategy. Every week you wait costs you either money or certainty.

Family in New Zealand, family in the Islands

You do not have to be in New Zealand to shop with us. If you have relatives in the Islands — or you are in the Islands and your family is here — you can buy directly from our website and have it priced and paid in New Zealand dollars or United States dollars, whichever suits you. Many families here order the gear, pay in NZD, and have it consolidated with the rest of the Christmas shipment going home. Others order from Rarotonga or Apia in USD and simply nominate the Auckland agent who is already carrying their cargo.

Either way, the same rules apply: give us the export documentation, we take the GST off, we courier to the agent for free, and the Gold Card and $1,250 discounts still stand.

How to get started

1. Put your list together — nets, netting, rope, floats, knives, hooks, lines, lures, swivels, sinkers — on our website or by email.
2. Tell us your island, your shipping agent, and the sailing or flight you are aiming at.
3. We quote it with the GST-free price, the Gold Card discount and the over-$1,250 discount applied, and confirm what is in stock.
4. We pack it, do the export paperwork with you, and courier it free to your agent's Auckland depot.
5. Your agent ships it, and it arrives in time.

Visit the shop: Unit 1/348 Rosebank Road, Avondale, Auckland 1026 — Monday to Friday 9am–5pm, Saturday 9:30am–2pm.
Shop online: actionoutdoors.kiwi — in NZD or USD.
Phone: 09 820 8023 or 0800 11 80 69.
Email any questions to sales@actionoutdoors.kiwi — tell us the island and we will tell you the next cut-off.

Discounts are subject to special conditions. GST zero-rating requires valid export documentation and export of the goods within the required timeframe. The over-$1,250 discount excludes marine electronics and marine winches. Shipping schedules are published by the carriers and agents named above and are subject to change without notice — confirm your booking directly with your agent.