Navy support ship HMNZS Canterbury leaves on a humanitarian mission into the Pacific tomorrow, carrying medical and dental workers and engineers to the Cook Islands.
Canterbury will drop off 20,000 litres of fuel at Raoul Island before heading for Pukapuka, in the Cook Islands, by June 2 in support of NZAid's mission.
Two Seasprite Helicopters will be based on the vessel, operated for the first time from a Royal New Zealand Navy Ship, to take people and supplies to Pukapuka.
The shallow waters around the island made it impossible for any boat transfers, Maritime Component commander Commodore Ross Smith said.
The mission, called Exercise Tropic Twilight, is part of an annual deployment in the South Pacific to conduct close country training in a tropical environment.
The Canterbury is due to leave Pukapuka on June 16 and return to Devonport on June 24.
The ship will also take six boxes of New Zealand Law Commission reports to Apia, in Samoa, as a gift for the Samoa Law Reform Commission.
