Icebergs are likely to drift past the South Island in the next few months - for the first time in more than 50 years.
But people hoping to sight from land floating bits of Antarctic ice will probably be disappointed.
National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research scientist Lionel Cartersaid yesterday that most icebergs would pass by hundreds of kilometres offshore.
The collapse of part of an ice shelf south of Cape Horn this week spawned thousands of icebergs, the biggest 10 times the size of Wellington Harbour.
Some icebergs would drift with the Antarctic circumpolar current into the Pacific Ocean, Dr Carter said. Satellites were tracking them.
Markings left on seafloors by previous icebergs showed the routes closest to New Zealand were the Campbell Plateau and the Chatham Rise, east and southeast of the South Island, he said.
"The last identifiable flotilla of icebergs reached New Zealand about 5000 years ago. However, icebergs were seen in New Zealand waters as recently as 1948, southeast of Antipodes Island."
