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A 46-year-old New Zealand woman's claim she was raped on board a P&O cruise ship is being investigated by police from four countries.
The woman says a 37-year-old Australian passenger attacked her in her cabin on the Pacific Star early on New Year's Eve.
The ship, which called at Auckland at the weekend, was at Lifou Island in New Caledonia's Loyalty Islands group when the woman was found in her cabin in shock and with bruising .
P&O spokeswoman Sandy Olsen told the Herald the liner's staff contacted police in New Caledonia, Australia and New Zealand about the rape allegation.
The cabin was cordoned off immediately, and the company helped gather items of evidence.
It is understood the woman's alleged attacker was sent home to Australia.
Police in Britain were also notified, as the vessel is registered there.
Ms Olsen said the company had flown the woman home from Noumea.
"We gave the passenger the opportunity to leave the ship, which she did."
The alleged rape is not the first instance of alleged sexual offending on board a P&O vessel.
Dianne Brimble of Brisbane was found dead on the floor of a cabin on the Pacific Sky less than 24 hours after she boarded the cruise liner on September 23, 2002.
She died of an overdose of the date-rape drug gamma-hydroxybutyrate, or fantasy.
A 2006 inquest into Ms Brimble's death heard evidence that nudity, streaking and sex in public were common on the ship.
Last July, Pacific Star passengers experienced what was later described as a holiday in hell after heavy seas battered the ship as it sailed from Auckland to Vanuatu.
On Saturday night, the Pacific Star sailed from Auckland bound for New Caledonia.
