Lake Pukaki | HMNZS ''Tui'' | HMNZS Tui | HMNZS Tarapunga | HMNZS Rotoiti | HMNZS ''Resolution'' | HMNZS ''Pukaki'' | HMNZS Pukaki | HMNZS Otago (F111) | HMNZS Otago | HMNZS Monowai | HMNZS Moa | HMNZS ''Leander'' | HMNZS Leander | HMNZS Hinau | HMNZS Endeavour (1956) | HMNZS ''Canterbury'' |
It began when HMNZS Leander ordered a flagless freighter to stop for an inspection.
New Zealand's HMNZS Tui made an extensive search of the area in the 1970s and found no shallows or islands.
In 1954 a Royal New Zealand Navy frigate, HMNZS Pukaki, carried out a bombardment of a suspected guerilla camp, while operating with the Royal Navy's Far East Fleet – the first of a number of bombardments by RNZN ships over the next five years.
France abandoned nuclear testing in the atmosphere in 1974 and moved testing underground in the midst of intense world pressure which was sparked by the New Zealand Government of the time, which sent two frigates, HMNZS Canterbury and Otago, to the atoll in protest for a nuclear free Pacific.
From here the route tends westward and rapidly increases in altitude, passing the southern end of the two great Mackenzie Basin lakes of Tekapo and Pukaki.
The hydrographic survey ship of the RNZN until 2012 was HMNZS Resolution, succeeding the long-serving HMNZS Monowai.