NZ couple escape cruise ship blaze

By DITA DE BONI

Two New Zealanders escaped from a burning cruise ship in the Pacific with just the clothes they were wearing.

Diane and Dave Kelsey, who work as scuba dive instructors, were among passengers and crew evacuated from the Wind Song near the island of Bora Bora in French Polynesia.

Diane's mother, Lesley Schultz of Northland, said yesterday: "They left with nothing much but the clothes they were wearing. I think they were hoping that they would be able to salvage some of their gear off the boat.

"Diane said a skeleton crew had stayed on the ship but that most had been evacuated immediately."

The Wind Song is a four-masted sailing ship which includes New Zealand in its Pacific stopovers.

The 127 passengers - mostly Americans but also Canadians, Mexicans, Argentines and French citizens - and a 93-strong crew were on the third day of a seven-day Tahitian cruise when fire broke out in the ship's engine rooms early on Sunday.

The ship was evacuated within 2 1/2 hours. Passengers and most of the crew, including the Kelseys, were taken to the nearby island of Raiatea and then flown by charter plane to Papeete, the capital of Tahiti.

French Navy ships, fishing vessels and Wind Song crew members were still tackling the blaze 12 hours after it broke out. The cause of the fire is still not known.

The Kelseys, who taught diving four days out of seven, have been working on the Seattle-based Windstar-brand cruise ships for about 18 months.

The company and Tahitian authorities were at pains to point out the blaze was "purely accidental" and not the work of criminals or terrorists.

The ship will be towed to Papeete.

Further reading
nzherald.co.nz/marine