HMNZS TAUPO
By LTCDR Jon Clarkson RNZN
TAUPO had a busy first quarter of the year—we had covered over 7000 nautical miles. That period included every type of operation for the Naval Patrol Force: fisheries patrols, Customs patrols, ceremonial duties for Auckland Anniversary Day and Waitangi Day, Fleet Exercises with an Anzac Task Group, Officer of the Watch Training and, support for recruiting initiatives at Whitianga.
Back in April, we were looking forward to a nice period of harbour training and routine maintenance including a small SRA package and some warranty repairs. That was the plan, anyway … but as often happens in the Navy you have to show flexibility!
Our period alongside included:
- Major structural work on the superstructure being conducted under warranty work on the main engines and generators
- a complete strip-out and clean of the fuel system (an incident of fuel contamination had caused an OPDEF).
- completing the originally planned work and, conducting harbour training with our many new crew members.
The Engineering Department worked long hours and they deserve a lot of the credit for meeting the timeline to get the ship operational again. This included passing the Safety and Readiness Checks to ensure our ship was safe to proceed to sea; we all breathed a sigh of relief as the Dockyard staff and other contractors departed and the maintenance work came to an end.
TAUPO is now undertaking sea training commitments and multi-agency patrols. One pause in the programme was for our annual Lloyds survey, while a highlight was to welcome the new WELLINGTON into Auckland harbour. But, everyone is happy to be back on patrol!
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