RNZN 75th Anniversary - Final

After the poor weather on Saturday, the sun was out on Sunday.

But so were all the people! The waterfront was crowded with people keen to get a look on the various naval ships here for the Ships Open Day.

Lee, Mark G and I popped into the city to try our luck with getting on to some of the ships.

Queues were long... some were allowing bags.. some weren't.

We decided to try for JS Takanami first as the queues weren't too bad, but it also had HMNZS Te Mana berthed alongside, so we could see two ships with one go!

For these two, it was only a quick walk around the outside of the Japanese ship onto the bow, across to bow of HMNZS Te Mana and then through to the aft decks of both.

No photography was allowed inside any of the ships, so not many photos unfortunately.

We'd also wanted to get onboard the South Korean ship ROKS Chungbuk. After finally finding its new home and queueing for sometime, we were on board.

For this tour, we got to see quite a bit more inside including the bridge. Was pretty cool being able stand up top and have a look out from the bridge. You could smell the freshness of this ship.... and as we found out, it is only 6 months old!

A pretty good day overall. Not every day you where you can wander around a few different naval vessels!

Also had another look through my photos from Saturday and had a crack with a panorama.

Not perfect as the conditions make it difficult for the transition points to be blended well, but it at least gives an idea on the line up out in Auckland harbour.

Happy 75th Royal New Zealand Navy. Shame about the weather, but hopefully many more years to come! :-)

Great spirit across the visiting navies with a number of them heading to Kaikoura to support relief efforts - kinda of what the celebration was about really.

Thanks for stopping by.

RNZN 75th Part 2

After a pretty nice sunny day on Friday, hopes were up for good weather for the big event - the Naval review and flypast.

This is where a number of the NZ and International ships would line up in the harbour to be reviewed by the NZ Governor General on the HMNZS Otago.

Typical Auckland though..... drizzle, rain, overcast and generally crap conditions.

The review still went ahead, but somewhat dampened. The flypast was unfortunately cancelled with all the low cloud :-(

Still, at least black & white photos work well in rubbish conditions.

Didn't realise until I looked through the photos, but the Chilean sailors were up in the rigging and on the bow line for the salute!

Off course, no military event is without a few protests. Award for best protest vessel and, also, commendation for braving the elements for his cause goes to this guy....

Who just putted along the line of warships and disappeared from sight.

With HMNZS Otago docking to disembark the dignitaries, it was time to follow this guys advice and head home for a cuppa to warm up with.

RNZN 75th Anniversary

This year sees the 75th anniversary of the Royal New Zealand Navy. Quite a few events were planned, but unfortunately weather and a rather large earthquake in Kaikoura kinda changed plans a little.

The first major event was to be a fleet arrival with gun salute. This would be all the ships from the visiting navies sailing into Auckland harbour.

To see it Mark G and I took the day off work..... only to have the event bought forward a day early due to bad weather!

No matter... to make the most of the day, we popped into the city to have a wander around all the berthed ships.

The most impressive would have to be the Chilean ship Esmeralda. Would be great to see it under sail. Just a shame about it's dark past.

A few shots from our wander around: