A 'chully in zid' experience for Kanimbla

1 November 2007

Following two attempts to get to New Zealand in 2006, both of which resulted in being diverted to Operations, HMAS Kanimbla (CMDR Jay Bannister) finally made it in October this year. After some balmy weather while crossing the Tasman, followed by rough and wintry seas off New Zealand's South Island, the ship arrived at the Otago Harbour limits and prepared for the two hour passage to Dunedin.

Otago Harbour is very narrow and is home to two ports; Port Chalmers located 5.2 nautical miles (nm) from the entrance and Dunedin a further 6.5nm up the harbour. Kanimbla with a length of 164m and a draught of 5.6m entered Dunedin with an under keel clearance of 2.2 metres in its shallowest part. The Otago pilot said that Kanimbla was the biggest ship with a forward bridge that he had ever piloted into Dunedin.

LEUT Danny Hughes, Kanimbla's Navigator said, "This was the most challenging pilotage I've undertaken, particularly with the number of very short legs and finding a suitable relative wind to launch the helo".

Dunedin is a very beautiful city, boasting a Cadbury's Factory, Speight's Brewery and Baldwin St, the steepest street in the world. Despite some very cold weather, the ship's company made the most of the four days alongside, some remaining in Dunedin, while others travelled to Queenstown and Milford Sound.

The transit north up the east coast to Cook Straight took in some spectacular scenery. Snow capped mountains made an excellent backdrop for ship photographs. A variety of wildlife could also be seen including seals and albatross.

The continuing cold weather and some very imaginative stories made the possibility of icebergs seem very real and so the ship closed up to Iceberg Alert State Charlie. The tradition of pulling the wool over newcomers eyes was observed with a number volunteering to stay on watch overnight. Needless to say, no icebergs were sighted and the ship made an uneventful passage through Cook Straight.

During the transit back across the Tasman, the Flight from 723 Squadron completed the embarked training phase for three pilots and the ship's company conducted a successful small arms shoot.