But looks like its a VFR trip to NZ hey Chuck! Who wants to be IFR on that trip anyway.
Actually you're supposed to be IFR over water to the land of the Long white All Blacks.
Reasoning goes that you must be able to positively fix your position at least every 30 mins. Since one wave looks much the same as any other, it means you've got to resort to approved instruments and that means declaring yourself as IFR.
If you're IFR then you've gotta report every thirty as well, and though I have managed to talk to Sydney on the ground at Lord Howe, it was spurios conditions and I still needed HF to be legal.