NZG MV Moana Roa loading and discharging cargo at Rarotonga 1965. Photo by Billy Johnson

MV Moana Roa was ordered by New Zealand Department of Island Territories as replacement for an earlier ship whose name was Maui Pomare. The Moana Roa was launched on 14 April, 1960 and for 14 years ran a passenger, cargo and mail service between Auckland and the port of Avarua on Rarotonga, the main Island of the 15 making up the Cook Islands and the island of Niue. I was Senior Ordinary Seaman crew member on her from June 1964 - Feb 1966. The Moana Roa became extremely well-known and well-liked. She was 297 feet (90.5 metres) in overall length and had a grt of 3,080. Her breadth was 46 feet (14 metres) and she had a loaded draught of 17 feet six inches (5.3 metres). The vessel was twin-screw giving her a service speed of 12 to 14 knots and with 293 tons bunkered, she had a range of some 7,800 miles which equated to 24 days underway. On her trials in the Firth of Forth the Moana Roa achieved a top speed of 15.12 knots. Accommodation for 40 First Class passengers in 14 two berth and three four berth cabins gave travellers the opportunity to voyage the South Seas. In the early 1970s the NZ Government said farewell to the NZG M.V. Moana Roa as her passenger numbers dwindled with the growth of airliner services to the Pacific Islands, as the price of fuel oil quadrupled and as wage and maintenance costs showed similar skyward projectories along with the constant and crippling labour stoppages. On 13 August 1974 that the Moana Roa berthed at Auckland at the end of her final Cook Islands voyage. After cargo discharge she moved across the harbour to Devonport Naval Base where her career as a merchant ship ended. Twelve months late, Her Majesty’s New Zealand Survey Ship Monowai, was recommissioned on 4 October, 1977 were she begin her second incarnation of working life.