WELLINGTON Arrives and OTAGO Heads South
By LT Lorna Gray RNZN
HMNZS OTAGO’s homecoming events in Otago and Southland took place over 22-31 July, raising the profile of Navy to new heights in that part of the country. Under the command of LTCDR Simon Rooke MNZM, RNZN, OTAGO berthed at Dunedin on 22 July. Six days later the ship sailed to Bluff and, next, undertook a short visit to Stewart Island, anchoring off Oban for the afternoon of 1 August.
They were anticipated to be a hectic but happy few days! Following the Otago/Southland visit, OTAGO is to visit Wellington city, to demonstrate our new ship to more ‘stakeholders’.
In NT 155 June, I described how the OPV delivery crew returned to Melbourne, after successfully delivering OTAGO to Auckland on 9 April. Once back at the BAE Systems shipyard, we set about preparing WELLINGTON for her delivery voyage. As readers will recall, our maiden voyage was marred by engine problems and we had a short, unplanned, stop over in Fleet Base East, Sydney.
WELLINGTON sailed out of Sydney Harbour in the second week of June. We encountered five metre waves outside Sydney Heads—a ‘baptism of fire’ for the ship and our delivery crew, who had forgotten their sea legs during our time in Sydney! However, the rest of the passage across the grey Tasman Sea was uneventful.
When we sailed into the Hauraki Gulf, we were pleased to see that HMNZ Ships MANAWANUI, CANTERBURY and TAUPO were also in the area, allowing us to seek out some playmates! Firstly, we found MANAWANUI anchored by Great Barrier Island preparing for a day of diving operations. After closing for photo opportunities, we moved on to look for CANTERBURY and TAUPO. Obviously the former was the easiest to spot when the time came! CANTERBURY happened to be conducting flying evolutions which allowed us to practice some basic OOW skills by maintaining a specific range from CANTERBURY whilst also ensuring that we did not enter the ‘Ship Control Zone’ that they had activated in order to conduct flying.
It wasn’t just the ships, there was also the Seasprite working with CANTERBURY, and a P-3 which welcomed us home with a few low level passes. Hopefully, coastal waters this busy will become a common phenomenon now that all the Protector Vessels are in NZ.
TAUPO escorted WELLINGTON in; berthing at the naval base on 11 June in the last of the Protector vessels was a great moment. The VIPs awaiting our arrival confirmed how important the event was, but it was our families being able to greet us that made the occasion extra special. It was also good to see the rest of our crew, who had stayed behind to carry out duties in OTAGO, still positive and probably just as pleased to see us as we were to see them.
Subsequently, the OPV Delivery Crew was divided amongst the two OPVs, with the majority serving in OTAGO. We readied OTAGO for our inaugural visit to our home provinces of Otago and Southland and the official Commissioning Ceremony, which was to take place in Dunedin. Before that we had to embark ammunition at Kauri Point and undertake our Safety and Readiness Check. Meantime our Stores Accountants ensured we had beanies, gloves and thermals on hand for the voyage down South!
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