and Pirates of Provence, a play for children. The play, The Complete History of the Royal New Zealand Navy runs for about an hour and a quarter and focuses on the Naval History from Captain Cook to the present day celebrations of Operation Neptune. The play includes William Edward Sanders’ encounter with a German U-boat and it is delivered entirely in jack-speak – navy slang – with a translation thrown in. Also in the play, within the WWII portion, it features the Battle of the River Plate, with a hilarious comparison of gun sizes before the German raider is brought down to size. International naval review weekend Participation Ships from Australia, Canada, Cook Islands, Chile, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Samoa, Singapore, South Korea, Tonga, and the United States have started arriving to help the Navy celebrate its milestone. Brunei, France, Germany, Papua New Guinea, Thailand, Timor Leste, the United Kingdom, and Vietnam are also sending representatives to the celebration but not ships. New Zealand All active ships of the Royal New Zealand Navy will be participating, as well as two Kaman SH-2G Super Seasprite naval helicopters and one Lockheed P-3 Orion Naval plane. Australia Australia is sending multiple Royal Australian Navy vessels including, but not limited to , which arrived at Devonport Naval Base on 3 November. United States On 21 July 2016, it was announced that then-Vice President Joe Biden, while on a diplomatic visit to New Zealand, had accepted an invitation for a US Naval vessel to visit New Zealand and participate in the 75th Anniversary celebrations. This was surprising to the New Zealand public due to the fact that the United States of America had not sent any of its Naval forces to New Zealand since 1987. It was announced on 18 October 2016 that the United States would send along with full-crew of roughly 310 soldiers. Kaikoura earthquake Several ships attending the anniversary were re-deployed, by their respective Governments, to help with the 2016 Kaikoura earthquake recovery efforts. These Ships are New Zealand's HMNZS Te Kaha, HMNZS Canterbury, HMNZS Endeavor, and HMNZS Wellington. International fleet include, United States Navy ship , Royal Australian Navy ship , and Royal Canadian Navy ship . On 15 November, the Japanese Navy and Singaporean Government's request to help was granted by the Acting Minister of Civil Defense, Gerry Brownlee. References Royal New Zealand Navy 2016 in New Zealand