The Royal New Zealand Navy is celebrating its 75 year anniversary in Auckland this weekend. Navy ships from India, Indonesia, China, Chile, Singapore, South Korea and Japan are joining in the celebrations. Meanwhile navy ships from Canada, USA and Australia are helping HMNZS Canterbury in Kaikoura to deal with the emergency after the earthquake last Monday.
This is the first time that the US navy has sent a warship to New Zealand since our nuclear-free policy in 1987. We do not allow nuclear-powered or nuclear-armed ships into our harbours. However, USA was invited to send a warship for these celebrations and probably this ship does not use nuclear power or nuclear weapons. The New Zealand navy in the past has worked with the American navy to stop drug smugglers at sea.
The New Zealand Navy has 11 ships and more than 2,000 staff. The job of the navy is to protect New Zealand and that includes New Zealand’s Exclusive Economic Zone. This is the area 200 miles outside the coast of our country, a total of 4 million square kilometres. This is the area where we have the right to fish. One job of the navy is to patrol the ocean around our country to stop illegal fishing from boats from other countries.
The navy also helps Pacific countries where there are major disasters like tropical cyclones. NZ navy ships carry emergency food, water and equipment. They help to clean up damage from high winds and help to build emergency shelters.
Although women could join the navy before 1986, they were not allowed to go to sea. This changed in 1986 and now the navy has many women including officers.
Tomorrow, Sunday, visitors can go on board many of these visiting ships in Auckland.
Listen to September 23 2012 to hear more about our nuclear-free policy.
Vocabulary
• HMNZS Canterbury – Her Majesty’s New Zealand ship Canterbury
• drug smugglers – people who are carrying drugs to sell illegally
• Exclusive Economic Zone – EEZ – exclusive means for our use only although we can sell the rights to catch a certain amount of fish
• patrol – to travel around the area, watching for illegal fishing