"As for adventure, the navy can deliver all you can handle," says Commander Garvan.
He recalls the day, last July, when Otago sped 200 nautical miles north of Cape Reinga, following a message that the 11-metre yacht Django had broken its rudder. Otago rescued the yacht's three crew in the nick of time.
In failing light, heaving 5m swells and winds gusting to 90 km/h, crewman Able Weapons Technician Gregory Allen shot a gun line, hitting the rigging with his first shot.
Three terrified yachties were instructed to inflate their liferaft and secure it to the line, so as to be hauled to safety.
The idea was to bring them alongside, to clamber up the pilot ladder, but with seas worsening the Otago risked rolling on to the tiny craft.
Commander Garvan decided on a Plan B, dispatching a swimmer.
Lieutenant Simon Wasley jumped into the heaving swells and swam to the liferaft, where he reassured the crewmen and helped each one into a rescue strop.
The yachties were soon hauled on board and, safe in the warship's hangar, receiving medical care, hot soup and dry clothes.
Commander Garvan's report singled out Wasley, but added, "I am pleased to have many personnel of this calibre serving within my unit.
"These experiences drive home the value of our training."
But such stories illustrate something in addition: the youth of many of the men and women entrusted with driving our navy's ships.
The average age on board the Otago is 23 and its captain, Commander Garvan, is just 31.
How does somebody so young rise to command a ship in such a relatively short period?
In part, by beginning a career as a teenager, straight from college.
Back in 2002, a geography teacher at Waitaki Boys High School pointed out to the young Garvan that the navy provided qualifications in hydrography. "I was looking at a geography degree at Otago but he suggested that the navy as a hydrographic specialist might be an alternate route to go."
The prospect of avoiding a student loan impressed the Year 13 student; he was accepted by the navy and after general military training as a midshipman, began to specialise in his chosen field.
Jump forward to 2011 and he gained advanced qualifications as a hydrographic surveyor from the Royal Navy training facility HMS Drake, in Plymouth. That followed studies at an Australian Navy facility, HMAS Penguin, plus several years of survey work in New Zealand waters and in the Pacific Islands.
Yet as is usually the case in the navy, opportunities provided were wider than merely one discipline.
In 2006, Commander Garvan took up an exchange posting with Royal Navy ship HMS Echo.
He was appointed as a gunnery officer, completing deployments to the northern Arabian Gulf, South China Sea, East Sea/Sea of Japan and west coast of Scotland.
Here are some impressions Commander Garvan chose to share from his nearly 13 years with the navy.
Sunrise on the bridge
"There was a real sense of achievement watching sunrise during my first morning watch as officer in charge of the bridge (4am to 8am). There's long preparation for this responsibility; various courses before you can proceed to the next level, plus much on-job training.
There's a special relationship between the watch-keepers and the captain.
You must demonstrate competency to engender sufficient trust and confidence that you're capable of taking over the captain's ship."
Writing on the wall
"Our navy is a mixture of our own, plus Royal Navy heritage. The way ships are run across Commonwealth navies is similar in many ways and part of that flows from shared traditions.
"These become part of our lives, for example, I find myself saluting the colours [flag] at sunrise, without even considering what I'm doing.
"Around the walls in the dining room at HMS Drake, the naval base at Plymouth, I saw little texts, which were dispatches recalling how each ship performed during the Battle of Trafalgar, including acts of bravery.
"Models of the British, French and Spanish ships taking part were suspended from the ceiling. Somehow you feel part of this history, wanting to do as good a job in your own era as they did in theirs."
Bicultural values
Commander Garvan walked over to the crest and waka paddle on his cabin wall.
"The New Zealand Navy's great because we have a mixture of Royal Navy heritage plus things that belong just to us. Aboard Otago, we carry this [points to a crest depicting a claymore sword crossed with a shepherd's crook].
"But our bicultural traditions are an important point of difference [he points to a ceremonial waka paddle]. As CO of this ship I steer the waka, that means I'm the only person allowed to take this [paddle] to formal occasions.
"In the New Zealand armed forces in general, and the navy in particular, bicultural values and traditions stand in us good stead, in times of war and times of peace. That's not going to change."
