New Zealand's navy and airforce are helping transport staff and materials for a multi-agency scientific work programme in the Kermadecs.
HMNZS Canterbury. Photo: NZDF
New Zealand's navy and airforce are helping transport staff and materials for a multi-agency scientific work programme in the Kermadecs.
About 15 tonnes of equipment and building material is being transported to Raoul Island by the HMNZS Canterbury.
Also being transported are staff from New Zealand's Department of Conservation, Meteorological (MetService) and GNS Science agencies.
About 40 DOC workers, including botanists and engineers, are to perform maintenance work on several buildings and a solar-power generation system on Raoul.
SunLive reports that five rangers will also replace the five who have been stationed on the island as part of DOC's regular rotation.
Eleven GNS Science staff are being deployed, including three commercial divers, to service tsunami gauges at Raoul which form part of the New Zealand tsunami-detection network.
Other GNS Science staff will be servicing the GeoNet seismic and global positioning system equipment on the island, while two chemists will be sampling the volcanic crater lakes and hot springs.
Three MetService staff are to assess their facilities on the island, training DOC staff how to operate and maintain an upper air sounding programme,
This programme includes weather balloons carrying instruments that measure wind speed and direction, temperature, humidity and pressure.
The Canterbury left Auckland on Wednesday and will return on March 30.
A Royal New Zealand Air Force Seasprite helicopter is also aboard to shuttle back and forth from the Kermadecs, many parts of which are extremely difficult to land boats on.
The chopper should help GNS Science staff conduct research work on Curtis Island, a volcanic island of roughly 40 hectares.
The island has an active geothermal network and, according to DOC, a breeding site for nesting seabirds.