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From out of the south they came - cold, silent and incredibly exciting for the public of New Zealand!
Just a few weeks ago one of the most remarkable sights to be seen in New Zealand waters for many a day, was the phenomenon of the icebergs that had broken off the Antarctic iceflow and slowly drifted northwards over a number of years.It was the first time in 75 years that icebergs had been seen near New Zealand.
This created considerable interest in the blogesphere with a number of posts being written in various blogsites, including a couple by me. The flotilla of varying sizes of icebergs slowly approached New Zealand from the south and inched northwards at between 75-150km off the east coast of the South Island.
When they approached the southern city of Dunedin tourist operators decided to make some money out of the situation and helicopter flights became popular for some time, even landing on the biggest of the icebergs - a walk on the cold side.The phenomenon became popular with the scribes too, with a lot of writing on the subject. It has become part of life for many people in recent weeks.
The journey of the flotilla of icebergs certainly captured the interest of the media locally and internationally and the New Zealand public in recent weeks as it inched ever so slowly northwards up the South Island coast, until it is now about 75 km from Christchurch where tourist operators are again flying tourists and interested locals to see the remnants of the flotilla - about three decent sized ones that haven’t melted away into history.
On a clear day the closest of the icebergs can be spotted off Duvauchelle Point in Banks Peninsula, which is now part of Christchurch City.
A National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research oceanographer, Dr Mike Williams,has estimated they will be melted by Christmas Day, but he is crossing his fingers that at least one of the icebergs will remain so people can say they had a ” White Christmas”.
Dr Williams said that even a small iceberg could cause damage to unsuspecting shipping - just three or four metres above water means that there is 30-40 metres, and several tonnes, under the water.That would certainly hurt one of the many fishing boats that fish off the New Zealand coast.
GNS Science computer programmer, Ben Morrison has reportedly mapped out the icebergs’ path on the organisation’s website using information supplied by Christchurch based flight company, AirCharter Ltd.
It was they who reported the distance of the closest iceberg. The icebergs are in a current likely to take them on a northeast course past New Zealand.
The company ran a sightseeing flight last weekend feeding back cordinates.Other companies further south had earlier capitalised on the phenomenon by providing sightseeing flights to observe the then larger flotilla.
Well I guess this is a sort of farewell to arms to something that may well not be seen for a generation or two again, but with global warming this is something that could not be guaranteed.
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