NZ Army service brings Staff Sergeant back to Penrhyn

Family had travelled across the lagoon to meet her and news of her arrival had spread through the community. “I cried,” she said. 

For the first-generation New Zealander, Exercise Tropic Twilight became much more than another deployment – it brought her back to her family’s roots, allowed her to spend time in her father’s village for the first time, and reconnected parts of her own story. 

Tropic Twilight is a long-standing annual New Zealand Defence Force-led South Pacific humanitarian assistance and disaster relief effort, supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. 

Both sides of Staff Sergeant Oltaches-Tagavaitau’s family have links to Penrhyn. Her parents were born and raised in the Cook Islands before moving to New Zealand seeking greater educational opportunities for their children. Although born in New Zealand, her home life remained distinctly Cook Islands, speaking Cook Islands Māori and maintaining the traditions and expectations her parents and grandparents had grown up with. 

“First generation is important, because inside the house you live a Cook Islands life, but outside the house you have to live a New Zealand life,” she said. Growing up between those two worlds was not always easy.

“As a teenager it was confusing. They wanted me to go to school and get an education, but how you lived at home was completely different to what was expected in society.”

Even something as ordinary as water use reflected life on the islands. As a child living in New Zealand, she remembers being taught never to waste water, something that made much more sense when she later experienced how precious freshwater is on remote Pacific islands. 

Joining the NZ Army was another departure from her parents’ hopes – instead of university, after taking part in an Army programme through Pakuranga’s Edgewater College, she made her own decision. It did not go down well.

Her parents were, however, at her graduation – and almost 20 years later their view of her career has changed considerably, and her younger sister has followed her into the NZ Army. In 2020, Staff Sergeant Oltaches-Tagavaitau was named both NZ Army Soldier of the Year and NZDF Person of the Year as she thrived in her chosen environment. 

When Staff Sergeant Oltaches-Tagavaitau heard Tropic Twilight would return to Penrhyn in 2026, the opportunity was difficult to ignore.

Although she had briefly visited Penrhyn once before, she never imagined her NZDF service would give her the opportunity to return and spend meaningful time in her father’s village.

On Tropic Twilight, she worked primarily as the Contingent Staff Sergeant, with a secondary role as a mechanic. She has also served as a community liaison officer, her cultural knowledge and family connections helping to bridge the gap between NZDF personnel and the Penrhyn community. She has helped personnel understand local customs, the importance of church, family responsibilities and aspects of island life that can be difficult to appreciate without cultural context. It quickly became a significant part of her deployment. 

“If you didn’t have someone who understands the community, the contingent could come here, work, and then be isolated back at the centre,” she said. Instead, personnel have been invited into family homes, eaten with local families, and taken part in daily life beyond their work. Some have even gone fishing after work to help provide food for families catering for the contingent. 

“That full immersion is important. They might see something, but when they’re living it, they understand it. There’s so much more that we can learn from them, just as much as they can learn from us,” Staff Sergeant Oltaches-Tagavaitau said.

The deployment has also helped her reconnect with parts of her identity that had faded into the background during a busy NZDF career. 

“When I joined the Army, I lost some of this. Not my identity – it was just forgotten. Seeing it again gives me clarity and closure on why things were the way they were growing up. I definitely feel like I belong here.”

That sense of belonging made her work on Penrhyn even more personal. From the moment she arrived, her people made sure she knew she was one of them.

As one family member said when news of the deployment reached the island, “She is Penrhyn.” 

As Staff Sergeant Oltaches-Tagavaitau puts it – “There’s nothing more satisfying than giving back to your own people.”