By Jeff Hampton
A big fleet of up to 20 icebergs is drifting north towards New Zealand, after passing sub-Antarctic Macquarie Island.
Satellite imagery has confirmed what scientists on the island have seen and there is a good chance that some of the bergs will make it to New Zealand.
Scientists' cameras have been busy documenting the rare sight; one berg even ran aground just off the island's west coast.
Australian glaciologist Neal Young is still marvelling at the size of the big berg spotted earlier in the week.
The berg was at least 500 metres long and described as the size of an island - the biggest ever spotted from Macquarie Island.
“The ones we typically see from ships and things they're quite small compared to this one,” he says.
Mr Young estimates up to 20 bergs are in the region around the island, with one as long as two kilometres.
He is tracking the bergs by satellite and found a whole group moving north from Antarctica with the current.
The icebergs are believed to have been part of several massive ones which broke off from the Ross Ice Shelf about nine years ago.
NIWA scientist Mike Williams says it is hard to say whether the bergs are linked to global warming.
“These icebergs calve every 30 to 50 years...we can't tell if it's a trend,” he says.
The ice convoy has aroused a lot of international interest, especially in New Zealand where southerners still recall the excitement three years ago when bergs appeared off the Otago Coast.
Mr Williams says the bergs could last another three to four weeks, but due to their location, in high current seas, they could easily be pushed south to the Pacific Ocean.
Scientists and marine authorities are watching their progress closely.
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