WELLINGTON, New Zealand-
Airplane operators have struck a small bonanza off New Zealand as scores of tourists and the curious pay to fly over a flotilla of icebergs floating near the coast, industry operators said Wednesday. Two helicopter companies and several airplanes on South Island were making up to six trips a day to the Antarctic ice blocks, which first appeared off the coast nearly two weeks ago after drifting north from the frozen continent. It is rare for whole icebergs to drift so far north before melting, but a cold snap around southern New Zealand and favorable ocean currents have brought the towering visitors to the region intact. Tourists were paying up to 500 New Zealand dollars (US$335; euro261) for each return trip–and some have been out twice, to view the spectacular ice blocks drifting off the coast–some a kilometer (5/8 mile) long, said Helicopters Otago pilot Graeme Gale. “It’s pretty full on, really,” said Gale, estimating that several hundred people had made the trip. “I’ve never seen so many people get off a helicopter so happy.” The bergs were slowly melting, changing their shape all the time.
