May 2012, Issue 166 - Royal New Zealand Navy

FLEET PROGRESS
hmnzs rotoiti
proceed on exped
By LET JORDAN PHILLIPS
HMNZS ROTOITI’s Ship's Company locked
up their ship on 12 March and proceeded
on Exped. Once the vans were loaded we hit
the road. The destination was the Navy ski
lodge at Ohakune; our accommodation for
the first night.
We were picked up in a mini bus on
Tuesday morning, and after an hour’s drive,
we arrived at our starting point to head down
the Whanganui River. The guides gave us all
a quick ‘how to’ manoeuvre and what to do
if we fell out of the boat. Our first day was
near on eight hours of paddling, although we
stopped on several banks to have lunch and
lie in the sun. Towards the end of the day we
arrived at our first campsite, pulled the canoes
up onto the embankment, and carried all our
gear up to the point where we pitched our
tents. Wednesday morning we broke camp,
repacked the canoes, and made our way
back out onto the river. Over the course of
the three days on the water the tour guides
explained the history of the river and pointed
out areas that were used for the filming of
the movie River Queen. We had a rather
impromptu stop on one of the embankments
due to ACH Oriwia Soutar and ACO Patrice
Jackson capsizing. ACO Jackson had not long
been in command of the steering, and due to
the unwanted swim was quickly stripped of
this responsibility.
As Wednesday came to a close we made our way
to a marae where we were to camp for the night.
Several of the Ship’s Company accompanied the
two local women who live and look after the
marae. The women told stories of the land and of
the people. Thursday morning, as we pushed off
onto the river, one of the ladies from the marae
did a karanga whakawatea for us to have a safe
journey on the water.
The guides made us paddle hard for the first
part of the morning to allow us time to visit the
Bridge to Nowhere. After the scenic detour, we
had lunch where the guides explained to us about
the three final rapids. One of the guides went first
making it look easy. ASCS Jermaine Martinovich
and ACO Jackson took a huge hit from the rapid
and quickly found themselves swimming. The
rest of us made it through although POET Alan
Jones and LMT(L) Richard Smyth seemed to have
water up to the gunwales but managed to stay
afloat somehow.
Later that day, the guides talked us through
the final rapid. Upon reaching the rapid, the
guides took off racing down them which led to
everyone following at a faster pace. Everyone
managed to get through the rapids except the
CO, LT Layamon Bakewell, and the Engineer, LT
Clare Hayward, who somehow managed to flip
the canoe at the very start of the rapid. It goes
without saying that this was a highlight for the
Ship’s Company.
Overall the Exped was a fantastic week away
from the ship and brought together further an
already tight-knit Ship’s Company.
HMNZS HAWEA
The beginning of 2012 has seen HAWEA alongside
DNB undertaking a number of important
activities.
The major component of these have revolved
around a minor maintenance period in February
focusing on ongoing preventative maintenance,
the installation of new communications equipment
and a freshen-up of the ship. With all of these
activities taking place, the reduced number of
Ship’s Company have found life relatively busy prior
to the Reduced Availability Period (RAP), where the
ship will be waiting in reserve to put to sea in the
back half of the year.
After such a busy start to the year, Ship’s Company
took the opportunity to relax for a week in March
with a team-building Expedition exercise in and
around Rotorua. During this week, activities such
as mountain biking, rock climbing and white water
rafting were enjoyed by all, as were the sights and
sounds of the Bay of Plenty region.
March also saw cameras pointed at HAWEA with
AMT Anthony Archer and
ABSCS Michael Bright.
28 NT165april-may12
WWW.NAVY.MIL.NZ