FINDING YOUR PLACE

Navy Today meets Midshipman Manukura Ngawaka, currently on his Officer of the Watch (Bravo) course.

Getting qualified and being able to have adventures and travel while earning a salary were big motivators for Midshipman Manukura Ngawaka. But he also cites his father, who joined the Navy in 1986, as an inspiration and a legacy to live up to.

MID Ngawaka, Ngati Maniototo, joined the Navy in 2022, aged 18. Finishing at Nelson College, he says there was the opportunity to study law at Otago University, but he didn’t want the extra financial burden. He says his 22 weeks of officer training was awesome.

“It definitely built resilience and it pushed me mentally when it comes to how I approach my day-to-day life. It helped me with facing problems, and how I approached them. I enjoyed the physical training, loved the weeks on the shooting range, and Exercise Storm – no sleep and being pushed every day – was awesome.”

Shortly into 2023 MID Ngawaka underwent his Initial Sea Time training in HMNZS CANTERBURY, deployed to the Kermadec Islands and Fiji.

“Being in a ship, finding your place at sea, it feels like you’re a rock in the middle of a stream, finding your way in to the flow of shipboard life,” he says.

“I was definitely grateful being able to learn invaluable lessons about ship life and it was a great learning tool going on to the Bravo course, having that real life application.”

As a warfare officer, he’s now posted to the Navigation Training School to do the Officer of the Watch (Bravo) 23/01 course. He is contemplating becoming a Mine Warfare Clearance Diving Officer in the future. “It’s a challenging role, and exciting work, but it will be hard work to get there.”

He wants to get involved in Navy kapa haka, having been a kapa haka tutor for a primary school in Nelson.

“Our group performed in the regional competitions. I was super-proud of them, and learnt a lot from teaching them. When our Navy intake did the haka at our graduation, it was a special moment for us.”

His advice to others looking at NZDF careers is “just do it. If you’re looking at the Defence Force and you’re unsure, just take it, it’s definitely not a 9–5 job”.