CANTERBURY! HMNZS - Royal New Zealand Navy

BAND-DITSSPORTWB 07-0091-17The band’s drum group. LEFT: The NavyBand combines with Otumoetai Collegeinto a very Big BandBY AMUS TIM CHRISTIEBAND ON THE RUNTHE Navy Band jet-setted to Melbourne forthe commissioning of CANTERBURY, thenfollowed the new ship back to NZ for thewelcome ceremonies and parades in Lyttelton,Christchurch and Timaru.Before that we had an extensive tour in theBay of Plenty and Gisborne. Special eventson tour were our two combined orchestrafundraising concerts. The first was withTauranga’s Otumoetai College Concert Bandin their newly opened Auditorium and thesecond, for the Gisborne Youth Concert Bandat the Gisborne War Memorial Hall. Both ofthese Bands are fundraising to attend theAustralian International Music Festival beingstaged in the Sydney Opera House.Our concerts were great, combining playersfrom both bands for the opening twonumbers. The performances started with“Fanfare and Flourishes” – a powerfulshow starter written by James Curnow andfollowed with “New World Variations” byDavid Schaffer.Our variety concerts consist of three orfour serious pieces intertwined with lightheartedup-beat numbers. POMUS StevenPacker, who recently successfully defendedhis Australian E-flat Tuba ChampionshipCrown against all comers throughout Australasia(Good on ya Kiwi!) wowed the crowdwith ridiculously fast variations on a themeof Grandfathers Clock on his Euphoniumwhile AMUS Leni Sulusi played an evenmore ridiculously fast Xylophone solo calledHelter Skelter. Then there was our newlypromoted WO Shaun Jarrett retelling thestory of Three Blind Mice in styles rangingfrom Mozart to Bizet to Beethoven to Sousa– with a quaint little dance display in themiddle which leaves the audience and usasking why he hasn’t signed up for the NZBallet company!Of course when doing our (more or less)light-hearted concerts we dont let the opportunityof finishing with “In The Navy” passby. There are five of us who like to dress upThe Village ‘People’ (aka ‘Idiots’) at Trident Collegelike The Village People (for reasons surpassingunderstanding) and dance like there’sno tomorrow.No sooner were we back in Auckland, wewere off to Wellington parading for the PrimeMinister of Greece, then back to Aucklandfor a Lions Club gig in Te Atatu and our annualMaritime Melodies concert at the MaritimeMuseum. CEO of the museum and formerCommander Larry Robbins approached ourBoss asking if the Band could do a concert tohelp raise the profile of the museum. Sadly,this was Larry’s last show as on 1 July heretired from that position. The Band takesthis opportunity to wish him all the best forthe future and to thank him for all his supportand encouragement over many years.HIGH SCHOOL FASHION!What is the latest fashion accessory for all High School students in the Bay of Plenty (BOP) andGisborne region? Paris Hilton Amber Visions? Not even close… it’s the Navy Dog Tag!The Band had been on a mission promoting Navy to High Schools around Auckland, the BOPand Gisborne areas in May. We started with Avondale College performing two concerts in frontof 1400 students each time, continuing to Birkenhead College, Matamata, Trident, Whakatane,Opotiki and Gisborne High Schools. All in all performing to over 6000 students over six days- that’s a lot of potential recruits!The Recruiters gave us a box of tangled up dog tags to take and after a week of constant untangling,we decided to limit the numbers given out at each school. Consequently as Master ofCeremonies and chief “giver-outer-of prizes-person”, I got bombarded by scores of studentsbegging for these blasted dog tags after each show. We simply didn’t have enough!INTER-SERVICES VOLLEYBALL 2007NAVY’S TEAMS JOVIAL & COMMITTED!BY SSGT WARREN HODGE(NZ ARMY MEN’S COACH)THIS year, the Inter-service Volleyball competition,was hosted by Air Force at BaseWoodbourne during April. Day 1 kicked offwith Army (men) in the first game againsta jovial but committed Navy side. This wasa good shake out for the team with Armycoming out winners 2 - 0.The Army women’s first game was upagainst an inexperienced Navy side, howeverNavy managed at times to put Armyunder pressure. Army came out on top in theend, winning 2 - 0. Next came the Army vsAir Force matches, Army winning both.Day 2:• Army (women) defeated Navy 2 - 1• Army (men) defeated Navy 2 – 0• Air defeated Navy (women) 2- 0• Air defeated Navy (men) 2 - 0And Air defeated both Army teams; theresults from Day 2 dictated who wentstraight through to the finals and who hadto play off in the semi-finals - with pointsdifferential coming into play. This left Air &Navy in the men’s competition & Army andNavy women to fight it out for the otherspot in the finals.Finals day saw Army vs Navy (women) inthe semi-finals. In a tightly contested gameNavy managed a win to make the finals,beating Army 2 -1Next saw the Air men vs Navy - again aspirited Navy side led by POPTI Hodge putthe pressure on Air, but as the game progressed,Air slowly took control and beatNavy 2- 0, progressing to the finals.The 1st of the finals saw the hard-hitting AirForce women take on a high spirited Navyside. The match could have swung eitherway, however the experienced players fromAir made the most of their opportunities andpowered their way to victory beating NavyWomen 3 – 0. In the men’s final, Army madehistory by beating Air Force 3 – 0.Special thanks must be mentioned to theorganising committee at Base Woodbournefor another successful tournament. Also toLT Glen Whitton, NZ Army Code Chairperson,who put in a lot of hard work behindthe scenes.To the RNZAF and RNZN teams, thanksfor making this another successful tournament.The 2008 Inter-Services will be hostedby Navy.If you are keen to play volleyball, then contactyour local volleyball rep.The Navy Volleyball squadAMED Katarina Ratapu accepts anaward from WGCDR Dave GreenAWTR Miria Paul accepts acup from WGCDR GreenWB 07-0091-02WB 07-0091-0540 NT123JULY07 WWW.NAVY.MIL.NZWWW.NAVY.MIL.NZNT123JULY07 41