“On October 14th H.M.S. Minotaur and H.I.J.M.S. Ibuki arrived in Wellington Harbour, and on the following day the Auckland transports, escorted by H.M.S. Philomel, arrived at Wellington. At 6 a.m. on October 16th the whole convoy, escorted by Minotaur, Psyche, Philomel and Ibuki, weighed anchor and proceeded out of Wellington Harbour to sea, cheered by large numbers of the people of Wellington and farewelled by His Excellency the Governor, the Military Headquarters Staff and Ministers of the Cabinet. Once Cook Strait was cleared, the convoy formed up in columns of divisions, in line ahead, with three of the four escorting cruisers steaming at a distance of six miles, one ahead, one on either beam, and the fourth four miles astern, these distances being reduced by less than half during the night.
The strength of the Expeditionary Force, consisting of the Main Body and the 1st Reinforcements, totalled 360 officers and 8,067 other ranks, and included 3,815 horses.” [Byrne, AE, “Official History of the Otago Regiment, N.Z.E.F. in the Great War 1914-1918”, J. Wilkie & Company, 1921, p7]
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