• Basic Training.
• Sea Survival.
• Able Rank Examinations.
• Able Rank Radar Examinations.
• Able Rank NBCD Examinations.
• Leading Rank NBCD Examinations.

Operational Assistance

• Fiji Coup 1987.
• Cyclone Bola. Cyclone relief aid.
• Search and rescue.
• Fishery patrols
• Antarctic supply.

Duties

• All aspects of seamanship, usage of hawsers, block and tackles, anchors and cables.
• Maintenance of ships fittings, rust prevention, paintwork on all surfaces.
• Helmsman ship, elementary navigation, small boat work, first aid and fire fighting.
• Radar equipment, track, location, speed. CPA, and time of CPA, classify all contacts and reporting to OOW. Radio communication reporting contacts to fleet, computers DOS programs data entry and retrieval, working with databases.
• Quartermaster duties, answering phones, public relations, safety and security of vessel. General tidy and cleanliness of ship. Making general broadcasts over ships PA.
• Working with video equipment and audio recording. As part of ships radio.
• Regular shift work and overseeing lower ranks duties.

Hawkes Bay Polytechnic

Carpentry First Assessment

• All aspects of carpentry.
• Usage of hand and power tools both air, electric and battery power.
• Using shop tools, table saw, mitre saw, band saws, planer, thicknesser etc.
• Mitre & scribing, squotia quad, fitting locks & indicator bolts, mortice, night locks and rim-locks.
• Construction of steel and wood scaffolding, setting out profiles and plates.
• Usage of dumpy, cowley, water and spirit levels.
• Fitting bevel back, fibre cement, weather boards and fitting scribes, setting out story rod.
• Erecting wall frames, bracing plumbing.

I joined the course when it was already a month in to the course, caught up and passed.

Seasonal Work

Fruit picking

• Apple picking
  • Braeburn, Royal Gala, Red Delicious, Coxs, Granny Smiths.
• Picking other fruit
  • Peaches, apricots, pears, plums and kiwifruit.
• Sub contracting clearing of orchard.
  • Using chainsaw and loppers etc.

• Design all adverts and prepare a proof for client to sign.
• Design page layouts and typesetting ready for printing co-ordinating with editor to ensure space. Both in Adobe PageMaker and CorelDraw.
• Editing of older adverts and converting to newer digital format, as Inside Otago was the first newspaper in the region to go fully digital.
• Producing newsletters, eNews, booklets, price lists, flyers in CorelDraw.
• Working with both CMYK and RGB images, manipulation of images to produce require advert idea.
• Formatting of files and converting to PDF ready for pre-press and printing.
• Build, design and maintain company website, having the stories and articles online (again one of the first newspapers to do this) in a similar layout to the printed newspaper.
• Answering phones and customer liaison, email queries and quotes.
• Aspects of business investigation and marketing & problem solving.