HMSNZ Canterbury sails into town

Navigation officer, James Williams, with Canterbury's Seasprite helicopter. Photo: Sam Gardner.

Tauranga residents may be noticing one ship at the Port of Tauranga, which looks a little different than usual.

The HMSNZ Canterbury is berthed in Tauranga this weekend until Sunday afternoon.

The crew has stopped in to Tauranga predominantly as a rest and recuperation visit, however for many of those on board it's also a good chance to catch up with loved ones.

Navigation officer, James Williams, took SunLive on a tour.

'Our commander, Matt Wray, and his family has just moved to Tauranga with his two kids, my family is from here and there's about 20 other crew members who are from the wider Bay of Plenty.

'As you can imagine being at sea and having a relatively busy programme it gets quite fatiguing for the crew, so giving them a chance to come out and take some time off, where there's only some of us working, is a really good chance for them to relax, rest and reset.”

James says there is about 130 people on board which includes members of the Navy; members from Airforce who maintain the aircrafts; and the NZ army, an on board assault team, who combined make up the ship's company.

'We are a real tri-service integrated team.”

Following their stop, the ship will return to sea on Sunday where they will conduct trials of their Seasprite helicopters.

'We've had our Seasprites and Canterbury for some time,” says James. 'But we haven't really had the opportunity to see or test what sort of conditions this helicopter can withstand on this ship.

'This is always different from ship to ship, based on the structure, how she moves through the water, and the big one for us is wind.”

He says the HSMNZ Canterbury is a different shape to many other vessels.

'We get a lot of turbulence as the aircraft passes through the structure because the ship is such a robust shape compared to a frigate or offshore patrol vessels, they're much sleeker line vessels whereas we are designed for that and as well as giving a sealift.

'This difference in shape means it really interacts differently with the aircraft as it comes through.”

James says the crew has deliberately planned to leave the harbour in search of rough weather, which is expected to hit the region from Sunday.

'We were originally set to depart on Monday, but we moved the date left because bad weather is on the way. We're sailing on Sunday to be amongst it.

'It's a way to open up the envelope of what we can achieve; in our landing, refuelling, and some other things we do while we're in emergencies.”

The ship is best known for her assistance during the Kaikoura earthquakes and is used frequently in humanitarian aid and disaster relief.

Most recently it has been used in Vanuatu and Noumea where crew have completed training alongside delivering supplies to Ambae for about a month and a half.

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