In May 2011 a group of leading artists from the South Pacific region travelled on the HMNZS Otago to a place rarely explored - the Kermadec Islands.

The artists were Niuean-born John Pule, painter John Reynolds, inter-media artist Phil Dadson, leading Australian sculptor/installation artist Fiona Hall, Wellington-based sculptor Elizabeth Thomson, one of New Zealand's most acclaimed artists Dame Robin White, documentary film maker Bruce Foster, photographer Jason O'Hara, and text-based artist Gregory O'Brien.