John Bisset/Stuff
The San Aotea II, pictured leaving Timaru s port in early June, berthed back in Timaru in August 2020.
A rescue and a retrieval featured prominently in June’s news coverage out of South Canterbury, writes Doug Sail in the sixth instalment of our series looking back on the year that was. Sanford deep-water fleet manager Darryn Shaw said the trip to the South Georgia Islands was necessary because of the impact of Covid-19, which had made it difficult to get people out of the Falkland Islands. ‘‘Normally we would bring our people back by air, via South America, but that is not possible at this time with borders closed into that region,’’ Shaw said.