The legal challenge against leaving the wreck of the boxship Rena on Astrolabe Reef in New Zealand has been dismissed.

High court judge Gerard van Bohemen halted the appeal four days before it was due to be heard in Tauranga, the New Zealand Herald reported.

He granted an application by the Astrolabe Community Trust to dismiss an action by Maori community group Ngai Te Hapu against decisions by the environment court in 2017 to allow the abandonment of the wreck.