Australian Bushfire Is Raging So Wild That Its Smoke Has Turned New Zealand Glaciers Brown

Australia has been on fire for several weeks now and despite the best effort by its authorities, coupled with extraordinary courage that the country¡¯s firefighters have shown, there are little signs of the bushfire being contained.

News Agency AFP has now reported that the smoke from Australia's bushfires has created a haze across New Zealand thousands of kilometres away with normally white glaciers turning a shade of caramel, according to social media posts Thursday.

The acrid-smelling smoke first appeared in the country early Wednesday when in many areas the sun appeared as either a red or golden orb, depending on the thickness of the haze.

"Smoke which has travelled around 2,000km across the Tasman Sea can clearly be seen," New Zealand's official forecaster MetService tweeted.

"Visibility in the smoke haze is as low as 10km in the worst affected areas."

A Twitter user called Miss Roho tweeted: "We can actually smell the burning here in Christchurch."

Another woman, Rachel, posted a photo of the Franz Josef Glacier -- more than 2,000 kilometres (1,240 miles) away -- with its usual pristine white taking on a brown hue.

"Near Franz Josef glacier. The 'caramelised' snow is caused by dust from the bushfires. It was white yesterday," she said in a post on Wednesday. Comedian Jemaine Clement posted a photo of a golden orb. "All the way over in NZ the Australian bushfire smoke in the atmosphere giving us this strange sun," he said.

According to experts, the present conditions in Australia is the worst in many years. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison had earlier expressed his condolences over the deaths of firefighters and said their sacrifice to save lives and property would be "forever remembered".

"I express my sincere condolences and sympathies to the families of the firefighters who have so tragically been killed overnight. They were bravely defending their communities with an unmatched spirit and a dedication that will forever set them apart amongst our most courageous Australians," Morrison had said in a statement.

Such extraordinary valour have the Australian firefighters shown that even on the occasion of Christmas when people come together and make merry, they used cooler conditions on the day to try and contain bushfires ahead of hot, dry weather later in the week.

Leaders and communities continue to thank them for sacrificing time with their families over the holidays but there is a little respite that has come despite their best efforts. It only shows how helpless humans can be in the face of nature¡¯s harshness.