Infamous luxury yacht connected to Ghislaine Maxwell arrives in New Zealand

Ghislaine Maxwell has gone into hiding after Jeffrey Epstein's death. Photo / Getty

A luxury yacht with a colourful past is due to arrive in Dunedin this morning.
The 58m Dancing Hare arrived in Akaroa from Sydney earlier this week and is due at Victoria Wharf in Dunedin at 11.30am, according to the Port Otago website.

Built in 1986, the yacht was bought from its original owner by British media mogul Robert Maxwell, who renamed it Lady Ghislaine after his daughter.

Ghislaine Maxwell has gone into hiding after Jeffrey Epstein's death. Photo / Getty

Ghislaine Maxwell was a longtime associate of accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Epstein took his life in jail in August last year while awaiting trial on child sex trafficking charges related to his alleged abuse of dozens of underage girls from 2002 to 2005 at his luxurious properties in New York City and Palm Beach, Florida.

The 57-year-old British socialite has not been seen in public for months.

The yacht served as a New York base while Robert Maxwell — one of the world's richest men, whose newspaper holdings included the Mirror Group Newspapers — negotiated with unions over his purchase of the New York Daily News.

In 1991, Maxwell (68) — by then in poor health — was on board, cruising off the Canary Islands, when he disappeared from the vessel on November 5.

His body was later found floating in the Atlantic, and his death — despite an official ruling of accidental drowning — triggered speculation of suicide or murder, as well as the collapse of his publishing empire.

Lady Ghislaine was on-sold, renamed Lady Mona K and later, in 2017, Dancing Hare.