The deployment of the Royal New Zealand Navy’s Inshore Patrol Vessel HMNZS Hawea to Fiji this week is special for Ordinary Chef, Tia Rickards for two reasons – it marks the first time that she is going on an operation overseas and it will bring her back to her mother’s home country.
Rickards says that she hopes to get her sea legs on this trip and learn more about how a ship runs.
Rickards who is one of the three chefs on board Hawea and also forms part of the ship’s medical emergency team.
She adds that she was very surprised when she found out she was going to be posted to Hawea, but even more excited when she heard that they were deploying to Fiji.
The New Zealand Defence Force has sent Hawea to Fiji to help patrol the South Pacific country’s territorial seas and Exclusive Economic Zone over the next six months.
OCH Rickards said she was looking forward to working alongside the Fijians during her three‑month deployment to the South Pacific country.
Rickards’ great grandmother hails from Levuka town in the Fijian island of Ovalau.
Although she understands Fijian, she cannot speak it fluently.
She says that her family was so happy when she told them she was going to Fiji and her relatives in Fiji cannot wait to see her.
Encouraged by relatives who are serving or have served previously in the Navy, Rickards enlisted in 2016 after graduating from Te Kuiti High School.
