Denied cruise ship low on fuel, storm coming
WELLINGTON: A cruise ship turned away from New Zealand is now stuck off the coast of New Caledonia, low on fuel with a significant storm approaching and no permission to dock.
Le Laperouse had an economic exemption to come to New Zealand for the cruise season, but was last week refused entry after Immigration New Zealand denied 61 of its 90 crew visas as they were not considered essential workers.
The Government said the ship left Jakarta before its paperwork was processed, but the boat’s owner believed it and the crew were given the allclear to come.
Ponant Cruises Asia Pacific chairwoman Sarina Bratton said the boat had travelled 3600 nautical miles to get to New Zealand.
‘‘We are trying to get into Noumea, it’s been a difficult situation . . . and we’re still very low on fuel.’’
‘‘We’ve spoken to the [New Zealand] immigration department about the lack of available people who have sufficient safety training certification in New Zealand.
‘‘We’ve been in touch with multiple recruitment agencies, shipping service agents, superyachts, trying to identify how many, if any, New Zealanders could be available to work,’’ she said.
‘‘We were not aware of a requirement of having visas approved prior to departing for New Zealand.
‘‘So it wasn’t until much closer that we’ve been told that they would approve the technical crew, but they would not approve the hotel crew.’’
Ms Bratton thought there had been a ‘‘disconnect’’ between government departments about the application.
Subsequently, the company had told INZ it would try to secure about 20 New Zealand crew, she said.
The company had put ads in newspapers and spoken to recruitment agencies, but was ‘‘not having a lot of luck’’.
‘‘I’ve informed New Zealand Immigration of that situation . . . and I’m just waiting to hear back to see whether or not they have any flexibility for the ship to arrive and operate as normal.’’
Immigration New Zealand said yesterday it had no further update in relation to Le Laperouse, other than to confirm that it continued to engage with Ponant to discuss its options. — RNZ