The ship was laid down by Smiths Dock on 25 October 1943, launched on 25 April 1944 and commissioned into the Royal Navy as HMS Loch Eck on 7 November 1944.

[1] After a refit at the Charles Hill & Sons shipyard in Bristol in June and July, she sailed for the Indian Ocean in August, to join the East Indies Escort Force.

After exercises with the Mediterranean Fleet in November, she sailed for Auckland, via the Suez Canal and Indian Ocean, arriving in January 1949 to join the 11th Frigate Flotilla.

The New Zealand Government decided to maintain two frigates in support of a United Nations Naval Force assisting South Korea.

Hawea's sister ships, Pukaki and Tutira, were hurriedly prepared for war service and sailed for Sasebo, their main base in Japan, on 3 July 1950.

From June to December she provided navigational data for bombardments in the Han River estuary, shelling rail traffic and maintaining a blockade.

[1] On 15 September 1951, Hawea swamped a 7.6-metre (25 ft) motor boat which sank in the Han River estuary while navigating swift tidal channels to reach a bombardment position.

In December 1956 she and Pukaki escorted the supply ship Endeavour in a passage to the Southern Ocean, sailing from Bluff to the edge of the pack ice.

[1] On 15 November 1965 Hawea and sister ship Pukaki were towed by the tug Atlas to a breaker's yard in Hong Kong.