Iceberg Warnings near New Zealand

Huge icebergs near NZ

An armada of about 100 icebergs was just a few hundred kilometers from Southland last night, prompting warnings for shipping and raising the remote prospect of the first iceberg sighting from the mainland in decades.

The surprised Whenuapai-based crew of an Air Force Orion, on a routine southern patrol looking for illegal fishing, spotted the first of the icebergs about 260km south of Invercargill late yesterday morning.

The frigid flotilla was split into two groups of about 50 icebergs. One group stretched about 185km south, and the other was concentrated in a chunky, icy mass about 37km wide.

Air Force spokesman Squadron leader Glenn Davis said the largest iceberg was about 1.8km long, 1.3km wide, and towered about 120m above the choppy waters. Given 90 percent of an iceberg is underwater, that meant the largest was 1.2km high.

The icebergs were north-east of the Auckland Islands and south-east of Stewart Island, and were drifting slowly towards south-east New Zealand, Squadron Leader Davis said.

"It is not unexpected to see icebergs at this time of year, but the crew were slightly surprised to see them where they are now," Squadron Leader Davis said...

They were seen as far north as the Chatham Islands in the late 1800s, and were last seen from the mainland in 1931, from a beach near Dunedin, Dr Williams said.