Dave Gee: Life from Right Field

Its been a few weeks now since the first icebergs were spotted off the Otago coast. A flotilla of maybe up to a hundred icebergs have drifted into New Zealand waters, having travelled for the last 8 years from Antarctica after breaking off an ice shelf.

The unusual visitors have proved a hit with Dunedinites and tourists, who've kept local helicopter and charter plane operators busy with regular flights to the constantly moving icebergs.

I was able to fly over a couple of the larger bergs last Monday, which was an amazing experience. We flew over in 40 knot winds, and watched as the ocean waves crashed against the massive ice structures.

The largest was around 500m long, 400m wide and 400m high (above the water at least - around 90% of the volume of an iceberg is actually under the water.)




* Australia's Channel 9 television network was one of the overseas media outlets that came to Dunedin to visit the icebergs.

They did a very good piece for A Current Affair, which you can check out here... (even they did steal our Martini glass and idea for their piece to camera on the berg! ;-)