Icebergs bear down on NZ

A large mass of 20 icebergs is heading towards New Zealand.

The mass is drifting north from Antarctica, past the sub-Antarctic Macquarie Island about 1500km southeast of Tasmania, the Australian Antarctic Division said.

In the past couple of days, at least four icebergs have been spotted off the east and west coasts of the island, ranging in size from 50m to an estimated 2km long.

This follows a recent sighting of a 500m-long iceberg late last week.

Glaciologist Neal Young said it looked like there were at least 20 icebergs around the island, spread over an area 1000km by 700km.

Macquarie Island acting station leader Cyril Munro said scientists working on the southern tip of the island were astounded to see an iceberg about 2km long.

The icebergs were likely to continue heading to the north and east in the general direction of New Zealand, he said.

National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research scientist Mike Williams said several icebergs have been drifting slowly northward toward the South Island over the past year, but it was uncommon for them to move so far into warmer northern waters.

- NZPA