Skiing PM alerted to tragedy after 40 hours

Prime Minister Helen Clark did not hear of the Asian tsunami disaster until at least 40 hours after the event because she was in a Norwegian mountain cabin.

She arrived back in New Zealand yesterday from her skiing tour and leaves today for a tsunami aid summit in Indonesia.

She said yesterday she was alerted to the disaster only after her party had climbed out of the canyon where her cabin was, and her guide got a text message from his mother on December 27 (Norwegian time). The message told of a terrible tragedy "on the scale of many Hiroshimas".

Helen Clark reached a hotel only later that day and afterwards decided to cut short her holiday with husband Peter Davis by eight days. She announced her intention to return on December 31, by which time questions were being asked about it.

"I felt that when something like this happens the best thing is to come home. People need a lot of support. They need to know the Government's on the case," Helen Clark said.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who was criticised for continuing a holiday while hundreds of Britons were missing, also returned home yesterday.