How I Live... In The Navy! - I Juggle Kids And Ships!

Lieutenant commander Nikki Fox, 43, is second in charge of the nz navy’s largest ship, Hmnzs Aotearoa. Based at Auckland’s devonport naval base, the mother-of-three commutes home to wellington each weekend

- Fleur Guthrie

I’ve been in the Navy for 25 years and becoming Executive Officer of this ship is my proudest moment. When I first joined in 1995, there would have been no way a mum would’ve got this position back then. It was a different Navy – we couldn’t go to sea now without females on board, that’s how much it has changed. It’s all performance-based and we do the job as well as anyone else.

My brother and I were raised by a single mum who was a sewing teacher. While other girls were discovering make-up, I joined Sea Cadets as a 13-year-old. I had been going to Girl Guides, but they sat around talking about boys and doing crafts. I preferred to run around outside throwing rocks on roofs! So Mum made me go to Cadets, where we got a trip on HMNZS Endeavour, and from then my mind was made up.

I joined the Navy as a Seaman Radar Plotter and the funny thing is, I only planned to stay there until I decided what I wanted to do with my life. Now it is my life.

As a young adult, it was all adventure, day in day out. I got to travel with 200 of my closest friends, going off to foreign ports like the Arabian Gulf and Bougainville. You always remember the first trips – they’re the ones that probably make you decide if the Navy is for you or not.