New Zealand man feared dead turns up alive

By ALISON HORWOOD

New Zealander Patrick John Donovan was in his Singapore office tonight emailing a simple message to friends and family: "I am alive".

The KPMG tax consultant's name had been posted on a Sanglah Hospital list as among the missing after the Bali bomb blast, prompting diplomatic staff to take his passport from his hotel room and search the morgue for his body.

Mr Donovan, who is in his early 30s, told the Herald from Singapore this evening that he had been walking towards the Sari Club in Kuta just before the blast, but paused for a minute or two to wait for a friend. He was 100m away when the bombs exploded.

"I was about to walk into the Sari Club and we were running a minute late. Then all of a sudden, there were two blasts, everything went black and a huge fireball went up into the sky."

Mr Donovan spent the next two days tending to the injured and helping to find missing expatriates, while his family wondered whether he was alive.

He had gone to Bali to compete in the Bali 10s annual rugby tournament with his Hong Kong and Singapore side The Potbelly Pigs.

But he flew to the island with the long-standing rugby arm of the Singapore Cricket Club, and then his name somehow got on the list of players with the Hong Kong Rugby Club.

Hopes were fading tonight for eight missing British players with the club. The Singapore Cricket Club is also counting its losses.

Mr Donovan's name was given to authorities as one of the missing and he appeared on a Sanglah Hospital crisis centre list as unaccounted for.

Mr Donovan told the Herald from Singapore that while he was out searching for missing mates, diplomatic staff took his passport from his room at the Grand Bali Beach Hotel in Sanur and went to the morgue to try to identify him.

He had already let his wife, Helen, in Singapore, and his parents, Margaret and Kevin Donovan in South Africa, know he was alive but said the time difference meant there was some delay.

"I feel so exceptionally lucky," he said tonight.

But some of the relief had been tempered by the wait to hear the final tally on how many friends he had lost.

He said the scenes in Bali were "worse, far worse" than anyone who was not there could imagine.

"We were helping to carry a guy down the road ... he was dying ... it took 45 minutes for an ambulance to arrive."

Mr Donovan grew up in Wellington, but moved to the North Shore as a teenager.

He attended Auckland Grammar School and Auckland University. He played rugby for Takapuna and Marist.

Mr Donovan worked for KPMG in Auckland before transferring to Hong Kong for five years and on to Singapore two years ago.

He said he loved Bali and had married there last year and had his stag party at the Sari Club.

Bali messages and latest information on New Zealanders
New Zealand travellers in Bali, and their families around the world, can exchange news via our Bali Messages page. The page also contains lists of New Zealanders in Bali and their condition.

Foreign Affairs advice to New Zealanders

* Travellers should defer travel to Bali

* NZers in Bali should keep a low profile and remain calm

* Foreign Affairs Hotline: 0800 432 111

Feature: Bali bomb blast

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