The 17 meter long passenger vessel Monarch ran aground in Otago Harbour, New Zealand. The Monarch was underway to Otago Peninsula to pick up passengers when it left the navigation channel to allow a LPG tanker to enter the harbour.  As it left the channel, the Monarch drifted on a mud bank. No reports of injuries, damage or pollution released. The Monarch remained on the mud bank until the rising tide refloated the vessel later the same day.