Rena accommodation block sees daylight for first time in two years

The accommodation block of the container ship Rena has finally risen from beneath the waves.

The massive accommodation block of the wrecked containership Rena has seen daylight for the first time in more than two years.

Salvors Resolve Salvage and Fire last night successfully raised the top half of the ship's accommodation block from the seabed suspended below the RMG 500 crane barge - placing it onto a transport barge.

The cut-and-lift operation to remove the first 350-tonne metal block ended up taking 12 days to complete, and saw the accommodation block above the water for the first time since the ship broke apart on Astrolabe Reef off the Tauranga coast and sank amid a storm in Jaunuary 2012.

A salvage operation, expected to ultimately cost the ship's owners $350 million to date, has been ongoing since the ship struck the reef on October 5, 2011, spilling 350 tonnes of heavy fuel oil and container debris into the ocean.

The time it took to remove the block was due to poor conditions on site, which led to the decision to transport the piece underwater in behind Motiti Island.

During the first lift attempt last Thursday - the lifting chains tore through the starboard section.

Specialist divers spent the next four days resetting the rigging with careful planning made to ensure the weights were equally held across the four lifting chains before the section could be re-raised.

The RMG 1000 barge carrying the cut top-half of the block is due in Port this evening, while another barge has meanwhile been back out at Astrolabe (Otaiti) reef undertaking preparations ahead of the next major cut and lift task.

As soon as weather conditions allow, all marine assets and salvors would head back out on site to start work on removing the lower-half 350 tonne block structure.