Service
New Zealand was sent on a ten-month flag-waving tour of New Zealand via South Africa in 1913. During this tour, the ship was seen by an estimated half-million New Zealanders—almost half the population—and her captain was presented with a Māori piupiu (a warrior’s skirt made from rolled flax) and a greenstone hei-tiki (pendant), which were intended to ward off evil.
The Admiralty requested that New Zealand return to the United Kingdom when the tour concluded, rather than remain in the Pacific region as originally planned. The New Zealand Government acceded to the request and, upon her arrival on 8 December 1913, New Zealand joined the 1st Battlecruiser Squadron (1st BCS) of the Grand Fleet. The squadron visited Brest in February 1914, and Riga, Reval and Kronstadt in the Russian Empire the following June. On 19 August 1914, shortly after World War I began, New Zealand was transferred to the 2nd Battlecruiser Squadron (2nd BCS).
Read more about this topic: HMS New Zealand (1911)
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