Icebergs become tourist attraction off New Zealand coast

[leftchick]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061115/sc_afp/nzealandenvironment

WELLINGTON (AFP) - Two icebergs drifting off the New Zealand coast have attracted massive interest from sightseers as well as sparking fresh warnings to shipping after their 13,500 kilometre journey from Antarctica.

The icebergs were about 100 kilometres (60 miles) off the Otago coast in the south-east of the country Wednesday, the closest sighting off New Zealand for 75 years, The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) said.

Helicopters have been taking scientists and sightseers out to view the massive slabs of ice. One is about 500 metres (1,600 feet) long, 50 metres wide and 60 metres high, while the other has a 100 metre high peak and is about 300 metres long.

The icebergs, accompanied by smaller chunks of ice, are considered unlikely to come close to land.

"From what we saw, they are melting fairly quickly and they are drifting a mile or two a day," Craig Purdie of Otago University told Radio New Zealand Thursday.

[nam78_two]

1. K&R/nt

[hvn_nbr_2]

2. 13,500 kilometers from Antarctica

That must have been one circuitous trip.

It's about 10,000 km from the South Pole to the equator (earth's circumference is about 40,000 km). New Zealand is about 35-48 degrees south latitude, so NZ is about 5000 km from the pole. I have no idea how the ocean currents go there, but it seems that those bergs must have taken the scenic route.

[Jcrowley]

3. K & R n/t

[Southsideirish]

4. Its all very normal, very normal indeed...just move along -nothing unusual.

[leftchick]

5. yes indeed

"normal"always makes for tourist attractions. :(