Andrew Austin, Editor of Hawke's Bay Today.
A lot has been written about the earthquake and the way our Navy and other navies stepped in to ferry stranded tourists and locals out of Kaikoura.
Some people have criticised it, but I believe it was the right thing to do. It was good to see our Navy serving
the people like this. Also, it was great that other navies, here for our Navy's 75th anniversary, could step in like this.
After all, these are the type of operations that servicemen and women train for.
It brought back memories of one of the best stories I have every covered as a journalist, where the military also played a big role in a rescue effort. It was 25 years ago - August 25, 1991 - that the Greek cruise ship, the Oceanos, sank off the Transkei coast of South Africa. There were nearly 600 passengers on board and the sea was quite treacherous in a stretch of water that is home to more than 230 wrecks.
I was working as a journalist for a regional newspaper in East London, South Africa, called The Daily Dispatch. Those were the days before cellphones, but when the call came through in the early hours of the morning, a photographer, another journalist and I hopped in a car and made our way up to a pretty rugged part of the country.
