The Royal New Zealand Navy offshore patrol vessel docked at Port Otago's oil jetty about noon yesterday, having had to spend a few days sheltering due to stormy weather around the Auckland Islands.
Commanding officer Lieutenant-commander Phil Rowe and his 60-strong crew were scheduled to travel directly to Wellington from the Southern Ocean, but a storm hampered their progress.
Instead, Lt-cmdr Rowe ordered a weekend of rest and relaxation in Dunedin while the vessel was refuelled.
It was the first time some crew members, including Lt-cmdr Rowe, had visited the city and many were keen to catch Otago's defence of the Ranfurly Shield tomorrow.
''It's a bit of a bonus for us to come here, and the guys are looking forward to having some downtime,'' Lt-cmdr Rowe said.
The crew had spent two weeks in the southern part of New Zealand's exclusive economic zone, locating and boarding fishing vessels targeting southern blue whiting.
It was a mission set by the Ministry for Primary Industries.
Lt-cmdr Rowe said 13 Ukrainian, Japanese and New Zealand fishing vessels had been registered to access the southern blue whiting fishery, and it was the crew's task to locate those vessels and board them to make sure regulations and quotas were being respected.
Only six of the vessels were operating in the fishery and all were compliant, he said.
Another two scampi boats were located near the Auckland Islands, so Lt-cmdr Rowe took his crew to investigate.
But the weather turned nasty and HMNZS Wellington was stuck in the archipelago for three days.
It was there crew members got the first unexpected bonus of their trip, as they were surrounded by southern right whales.
''We saw about 100 individual whales, including 15 or 20 calves, in the days we were there,'' Lt-cmdr Rowe said.
He compiled a report of the whale sightings, including photographs, which had been sent to the Department of Conservation and researchers at the University of Otago.
HMNZS Wellington will depart from Dunedin for Wellington on Monday.
