Labuan Bajo is the essential staging port for Komodo National Park — a fast-developing town with customs clearance, fuel, water, marina berths, and a vibrant dive scene that makes it far more than a mere gateway stop on the eastward passage through Indonesia.

Kota Kinabalu is Borneo's most accessible cruising port — a friendly, modern city with a well-run marina, superb provisioning, and a remarkable natural hinterland of marine parks, rainforest, and the imposing bulk of Mount Kinabalu. An essential stop on any South China Sea circuit.

Langkawi is the anchor of Southeast Asian cruising — duty-free fuel and provisions, three well-equipped marinas, stunning island anchorages, and a geographic position at the crossroads of Andaman Sea and Strait of Malacca routes make it an essential and repeatedly revisited base.

Kuching is the most atmospheric of Borneo's cities — a compact, walkable waterfront capital with superb food, world-class museums, and easy access to ancient rainforest and orang-utan sanctuaries. An off-the-beaten-track gem for cruising yachts exploring the South China Sea.

Penang combines world-class urban culture — a UNESCO heritage city, Asia's greatest street food scene, and extraordinary colonial architecture — with practical marina facilities and a protected anchorage that makes it one of the most rewarding urban port calls in all of Southeast Asian cruising.

Dunedin offers a fully-equipped Port of Entry in one of New Zealand's most atmospheric cities, with the dramatic 12 nm Otago Harbour approach, royal albatross and yellow-eyed penguin encounters at Taiaroa Head, and a Victorian Scottish heritage that makes it unlike anywhere else in the Southern Ocean.

Abel Tasman National Park delivers the finest coastal cruising on the South Island — a succession of golden-sand anchorages in clear turquoise water, native bush, fur seal colonies, and empty beaches that only a visiting yacht can reach before the morning crowds.

New Plymouth is the sole port of refuge on the North Island's exposed west coast, backed by the spectacular cone of Mount Taranaki and offering a surprisingly vibrant city stopover for sailors on passage between Auckland and the Marlborough Sounds.

The Poor Knights Islands offer some of the Pacific's most spectacular diving and dinghy exploration — dramatic sea arches, vast caves, and extraordinary marine biodiversity — all within a day sail of Tutukaka on the Northland coast.

Ishigaki Island is Japan's subtropical frontier — a sailor's outpost at the far southwest of the archipelago where manta rays circle offshore, Ryukyuan village life continues on neighbouring Taketomi, and the wild jungle island of Iriomote offers one of Japan's most extraordinary nature experiences.