As part of the three-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region, HMNZS Aotearoa also completed defence engagements and exercises with key countries and partners, including port visits to Japan, the Philippines and Vietnam.<\/p>\n
The vessel also carried out enforcement of United Nations Security Council sanctions against North Korea, undertaking surveillance and deterrence activities in the international waters of the East China and Yellow Seas during November.<\/p>\n
Simek, a Sacred Heart Girls\u2019 College alumna, joined the Navy in 2020, inspired by cousins and an uncle who were also serving.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wasn\u2019t sure what I wanted to study in university,\u201d Simek said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy family members were having some really cool experiences that I thought I could get as well, and I wanted a chance to see the world while doing my job.<\/p>\n
\u201cA sailor came to my careers class at Sacred Heart Girls\u2019 College and she shared her experiences \u2013 getting paid to travel, free medical and dental and lots of cool opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n
HMNZS Aotearoa is the third ship she has served on, starting her posting in October last year.<\/p>\n
Simek said the best part of being on deployment was being part of operations HMNZS Aotearoa undertakes for New Zealand.<\/p>\n
The HMNZS Aotearoa crew are welcomed home after an eight-month deployment. Photo \/ Petty Officer Chris Weissenborn<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing away from home and family is always the biggest challenge, as well as keeping to a good diet \u2013 especially when our chefs make some yummy \u2018duff\u2019 [dessert].\u201d<\/p>\n
During her Navy career, Simek has enjoyed a range of experiences that include performing on the drums with Six60 at a concert at Mt Eden Stadium, being part of M\u0101ori Culture Group performances in more than 15 countries, riding in a Navy helicopter over the Great Barrier Reef and seeing penguins and seals in Antarctica.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve ticked off a lot of career goals in my short time in the service,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI still want to do the world\u2019s largest maritime exercise, Exercise Rimpac, in Hawaii.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m working to get promoted to my next rank and taking charge of my own team.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve got a lot of other smaller goals but there are too many to list \u2013 the opportunities in Navy are endless and there\u2019s always something to work towards.\u201d<\/p>\n
Outside the Navy, Simek is a keen waka ama\/va\u2019a (outrigger canoe) competitor.<\/p>\n
She received funding assistance from the Navy to attend the IVF Va\u2019a World Sprint Championships last year.<\/p>\n
Simek said her advice to anyone thinking about joining the Navy was to go for it.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn top of your own trade skills and knowledge, you also get some other cool qualifications and experiences.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou make a lot of new friends and family and create bonds with people that will last a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As part of the three-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region, HMNZS Aotearoa also completed defence engagements and exercises…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185254,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[116917,74,12889,4995,18399,4731,37850,22771,2082,71,6288,48801,1345,42031,46664,111,43,139,69,3236,1527,6443,9855,46451,2044,102,80],"class_list":["post-185253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-116917","tag-after","tag-aotearoa","tag-away","tag-christmas","tag-days","tag-deployment","tag-excited","tag-for","tag-from","tag-hamilton","tag-hmnzs","tag-home","tag-lengthy","tag-navy","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-overseas","tag-return","tag-returns","tag-royal","tag-sailor","tag-time","tag-with","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185253\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}