while it was located to the east of Funafuti in Tuvalu. Over the next couple of days the system was steered towards the west-southwest, under the influence of a mid-level subtropical ridge of high pressure. After the depression had crossed the International Dateline early on December 25, atmospheric convection surrounding 04F increased and the system became better organized. At this time vertical wind shear over the system rapidly decreased, while the systems outflow significantly improved. As a result, the United States Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) issued a Tropical Cyclone Formation Alert on the system, before they initiated advisories on the system and designated it as Tropical Cyclone 06P. Later that day at 21:00 UTC (08:00 December 26 SIT) the FMS reported that the depression had become a Category 1 tropical cyclone, on the Australian tropical cyclone intensity scale and named it Zoe. At this time the system was located about to the northwest of the Fijian Dependency; Rotuma and moving westwards at about . After being named, Zoe intensified very rapidly in very favorable conditions and became a Category 3 severe tropical cyclone by 12:00 UTC (23:00 SIT) on December 26. Zoe's eye subsequently became obvious on both visible and infrared satellite imagery, while the system continued to intensify and became a Category 5 severe tropical cyclone during December 27. During December 27, the JTWC reported that Zoe had become equivalent to a category 5 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale as it peaked with 1-minute windspeeds of 285 km/h (180 mph) and passed about to the southeast of the Solomon Island: Anuta. Zoe subsequently turned towards the southwest and passed in between the Solomon Islands of Anuta and Fataka, as the subtropical ridge weakened in response to an upper level trough of low pressure over the Tasman Sea. Early on December 28, the FMS estimated that the system had peaked as a Category 5 severe tropical cyclone, with 10-minute sustained wind speeds of 240 km/h (150 mph) and a minimum pressure of . By this time the steering flow over the cyclone had become weak and variable, as the system passed within of the island of Tikopia. As a result, Zoe virtually stalled and performed a small clockwise cyclonic loop, within the vicinity of Tikopia, however, the eye of the system did not pass over the island. During December 29, after the system had stalled, Zoe started