Navy contingent on exercise Tropic Twilight share careers advice

A careers workshop with the naval hydrographers from the HMNZS Matataua of the Royal New Zealand Navy took place yesterday morning at the Niue Lawn Bowls building.

The careers session was led by lieutenant commander Ginette Atkinson of the Navy, ex-air force personnel Alan Wilson of the Royal Australian Air Force and Mike Borek of the Royal NZ Air Force, according to the Niue Chamber of Commerce Facebook Page. 

It was understood that ten Niue High School students and two school leavers attended the session. Participation also included a few representatives from the Niue Chamber of Commerce, Public Service Commission and Ministry of Transport. 

BCN News was able to speak with Lieutenant Commander Ginette Atkinson of the Navy this morning who explained more about the purpose of the Navy contingent as part of the NZ Defence Force team here on the island for exercise Tropic Twilight. 

“We are here to do some surveying of the main wharf here in Alofi, the boat ramps up at Namukulu, and Avatele. We are doing, what we call a bathymetric survey of the wharf here. What this means is that the data we collect with our sonars aboard the boat, we’ll make a 3D picture of the seafloor and that will go towards informing future infrastructure upgrades and improvements to the wharf and boat ramp areas around Niue.”

The navy contingent consists of nine personnel; eight hydrographic surveyors and one engineer for technical requirements.

“The navy provides a great career for anyone that’s interested. My advice would be to have a look on the defence careers website, find out what roles and jobs you’re interested in and always do something you’re interested in as a person. Because if you do a job that you’re interested in then you’ll really enjoy it for the rest of your career,” says lieutenant commander Atkinson. 

“You need to be able to enjoy being with other people, travelling and things like that. And there’s obviously a challenging side to the roles as well as amazing rewards and travel. But my advice would be to have a look on the website, see what suits you, do well at school, and work hard to get where you want to be.” 

The Navy contingent will be leaving the island on Saturday morning this week by navy ship which will be coming into the island.