GMV Moana Roa at Rarotonga 1966. Photo by Billy Johnson

The Motor Vessel Moana Roa was the New Zealand Department of Island Territories run ship which was 2,750-ton, 12-knot motor vessel. The Moana Roa sailings were between Auckland, NZ and Rarotonga generally at three to four weekly intervals and calls are made at other southern group islands when cargoes are offering. She was passenger and refrigerated cargo. The Moana Roa would anchor off Rarotonga and Aitutaki for an exchange of passengers and cargo and then sail back to Rarotonga and then on to Auckland. I was Senior Ordinary Seaman from July 1964 to Feburary 1966.
Commercial air travel during the 70's made her role to the Cook Islands obsolete and the Moana Roa was taken over by another government apparatus for projecting power and prestige around the neighbourhood: the Royal New Zealand Navy. She became the hydrographic survey ship HMNZS Monowai.