Some Port Vila buildings were flattened in the quake. Photo: Vanuatu Police
The rescue team sent to Vanuatu over Christmas to aid the nation's disaster response following a deadly 7.3 magnitude earthquake has returned to New Zealand.
After a challenging 10-day mission, the team landed in Auckland around 7pm on Friday and returned to the Auckland City Fire Station for a banquet and to debrief.
"We deployed at a special time of year for families, and [they showed] ultimate professionalism," Urban Search and Rescue taskforce leader Ken Cooper told RNZ.
"The wellbeing of our team is critical to us so we'll undertake a debrief of the team and they will receive time off to recover before returning to their stations, and we also ensure we check in with them over the following weeks to ensure they're recovering well."
Despite a 24-hour delay caused by an engine fault on one of the Hercules planes carrying the team and its equipment, Cooper said they hit the ground running.
"On arrival we were put to work straight away, we received some taskings from the Vanuatu government and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and we undertook some search and rescue of some properties including the [New Zealand] High Commission and another building known as the Billabong building," he said.
Urban Search and Rescue taskforce leader Ken Cooper. Photo: RNZ / Felix Walton
"Once we had passed through the search and rescue phase we moved into the assessment of damaged buildings ... [We] provide a report back to the Vanuatu government and that allows them to prioritise the most damaged buildings to ensure there's no further risk to the community."
Cooper said it was a challenging and emotional mission, but a bright spot was when his team was invited to a community lunch on Christmas Day.
"The team were invited to a community Christmas celebration, we were welcomed into a village that we had provided evacuation information to so they in return invited us to spend time with them ... So we had a very special Christmas day lunch and then we returned to our taskings," he said.
"Christmas Day was a normal working day for us, so each day we started at around about 5:30 in the morning because it was cooler. We purposely paused to come together as a team and we did some reflection on the tasks we had undertaken and we remembered the families back home.
"It was a really special moment for them to call home and receive video messages."
Although the team had returned for some much-needed rest, Cooper said the disaster was not over.
"Although we've returned as a team, the New Zealand response will continue. There will be support.
"We've offered support to the engineers and I'm sure aid will continue from the New Zealand government if requested by Vanuatu."
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