Huge icebergs near shipping lanes near NZ

[proud_ionian]

Authorities in New Zealand have issued a marine hazard warning as huge icebergs drift towards international shipping lanes off the country's south coast.

Our correspondent in Auckland, Peter Lewis, says it is the first time in about 70 years that Antarctic icebergs have been spotted so far north.

The icebergs were first reported by the crew of Royal New Zealand Air Force Orion during a routine fisheries patrol late last week.

The northernmost iceberg was only 260 kilometres off Invercargill, a town at the southern tip of New Zealand's South Island.

The largest one is estimated at two kilometres long and more than 130 metres high.

The icebergs are expected to melt as they drift into warmer waters, but a precautionary hazard warning has been issued because of their proximity to international shipping lanes.

New Zealand's National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research says the last reported icebergs so close to the mainland were off Dunedin in the 1930s.

source: Radio Australia