Person arrested for trespassing on infamous luxury yacht connected to Ghislaine Maxwell

A person has been arrested for trespassing at the Auckland marina where a superyacht with connections to accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein is docked.

Luxury yacht the Dancing Hare has been in New Zealand since January, when it first docked in Akaroa before making its way to Dunedin where it docked at the Victoria Wharf on January 24.

The 58m vessel has also been spotted in Wellington.

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 was a long-time associate of accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and is now on the run.

The 57-year-old British socialite has not been seen in public for months and is wanted by US authorities over her links to the disgraced financier.

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.

While it is unclear how long the luxury yacht has been docked at Auckland's Viaduct Harbour, the Herald understands a call was put out on social media to attempt to board the vessel.

On Tuesday, one person was arrested for wilful trespass at Silo Marina at around 5.40pm, a police spokeswoman said.

When approached by Stuff, those on the boat declined to comment or to confirm who was aboard.

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.