George Block05:00, Jan 22 2022
The Navy’s state of the art new ship will only spend a few days in disaster-hit Tonga before heading south to Antarctica, following the breakdown of a US supply vessel.
HMNZS Aotearoa, a $500 million purpose-built supply ship able to produce 100,000 litres of fresh water per day, set sail for Tonga on Tuesday and arrived on Friday.
When the devastating volcano and resulting tsunami hit Tonga a week ago, Aotearoa’s crew were preparing to leave for Antarctica on a resupply mission on or around January 28, Stuff understands.
As the severity of the disaster became clear, Defence Force brass decided to send Aotearoa north.
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It berthed at Nuku’alofa Port on Friday, where the crew of the navy’s largest ever ship will undertake contactless disaster relief and resupply work.
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But in just a few days the boat will be relieved by multi-role vessel HMNZS Canterbury, and the ice-strengthened Aotearoa will head straight down to Antarctica
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The ship has to head down on its appointed date, due to issues with US Antarctic Program (USAP) cargo ship Ocean Giant.
US National Science Foundation media officer Mike England told Stuff the Ocean Giant required “some unscheduled maintenance repairs” that will delay its arrival at McMurdo Station, which is about 3km away from New Zealand’s Scott Base, by about 10 days.
“Therefore, the cargo operations at McMurdo will conclude in late February.
“The cargo delays allowed the USAP to accelerate the arrivals and departures of the fuel tanker and the HMNZS Aotearoa.”
Antarctica New Zealand logistics co-ordinator Paul Woodgate said there were no supply shortages at Scott Base due to the delayed arrival of the Ocean Giant.
No supply shortages would result if Aotearoa was unable to arrive at its appointed date, he said.
The Aotearoa is expected to be at the McMurdo Ice Pier some time in the second week of February
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A Defence Force spokeswoman said cold weather preparations continued while Aotearoa supported the Tongan relief effort.
Its departure would be timed to match the arrival of HMNZS Canterbury, carrying additional stores and water production capability, and the Australian Navy’s HMAS Adelaide.
“Canterbury is currently embarking New Zealand Army personnel and vehicles and two [air force] NH-90 helicopters before sailing over the weekend.”
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