Not your normal 9 to 5 for Coromandel sailor

Able Seamanship Combat Specialist (ASCS) Brooke Teklenburg, 24, is deployed as part of operations in North Asia.

As part of the bridge watch team she assists with ship spotting, driving Te Mana, and monitoring vessels of interest that may have breached United Nations Security Council (UNSC) sanctions against North Korea.

During August and September an RNZN Task Group, Te Mana and the sustainment vessel HMNZS Aotearoa, bolstered enforcement of UNSC sanctions, which aim to persuade North Korea to denuclearise and abandon its ballistic missile capabilities.

The group was tasked with reporting vessels suspected of trafficking refined petroleum to North Korea and vessels suspected of exporting commodities such as coal, iron ore and sand, which is used to fund North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile production.

ASCS Teklenburg spent long hours on the bridge keeping lookout, including monitoring the movements of the ship’s Seasprite helicopter.

“I get up at midday every day. I work until 7pm, go to bed again, get up at midnight, work until 8am the next day.”

Additional duties include sea boat drills, where she steps into the role of a coxswain, driving a rigid hull inflatable boat.

“Being a coxswain is definitely the coolest part of my job, for sure,” she says.

“It was one of the roles I really wanted to do and getting to achieve that quite early in my career has definitely been a highlight.” 

ASCS Teklenburg has spent most of her career posted to ships and going on deployments – and she wants to continue going to sea. This operation is the second time she’s been posted to Te Mana.

“I think I'm very lucky, as a 24-year-old, to experience what I have thus far in my career. I'm just excited to see how it keeps going.”

After leaving Coromandel Area School, ASCS Teklenburg joined the RNZN five years ago and is the first person in her family to join the Navy. 

“Growing up in the Coromandel I was on the water a lot. I fell in love with it.

“And I read the blurb about the seamanship combat specialist trade and I thought, that sounds awesome.

“You get to experience so many different things that you would never get to otherwise do. It's totally different from your normal 9 to 5.”