Navy eyes Marlborough landing sites

Navy crews were in Kaikoura last week to scout potential landing sites for next year’s biannual combined services exercise.

Southern Katipo 17 will bring together more than 2000 navy, army and air force personnel from New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Fiji, France, Papua New Guinea, Tonga, the United Kingdom and the United States.

The ‘‘colossal’’ exercise aimed to test the New Zealand Defence Force’s ability to conduct such a joint mission, while allowing them to work with their international defence partners.

Part of the previous exercise Southern Katipo 15 was held in the Marlborough Sounds.

Lieutenant Peter Jensen, heading a military hydrographic group surveying the shores, said they had again headed to Blenheim after their Kaikoura stint finished on Saturday.

‘‘It’s looking at being staged around the top of the South Island . . . so we’re looking at places between Kaikoura and, at the moment, Picton.

‘‘Basically what we’re doing at the moment are feasibility surveys where the staging area could be.’’

The crew arrived from Auckland on Tuesday to survey the shores along South Bay, Fyffe Quay and the Esplanade for their suitability for seacraft landings for the exercise.

Jensen said he did not think any part of Southern Katipo had been held in Kaikoura before, and his crew’s presence in the area had generated some interest among the locals.

‘‘There’s been plenty of interest and it’s all been pretty positive . . . Previous editions of Southern Katipo have been around Canterbury, so [Kaikoura] may have been looked at, but I don’t think there has been much done deliberately in the area.’’

Jensen said his crew’s last day in Blenheim was July 27. The 2017 dates for Southern Katipo were yet to be finalised.

He said practising on such a large scale had proven useful over the years and similar operations had been put into practice for managing real-life situations.

‘‘We did this for real a little while ago when Cyclone Pam came through Fiji. We sent personnel there and that was making use of our team, our rapid environmental assessment team, and the [HMNZS] Canterbury.

‘‘So this sort of thing does come up – we responded to the Christchurch earthquake as well back in 2011.’’