(CNN) Smoke and ash drifting from the Australian bushfires have caused New Zealand's glaciers to turn caramel brown, with one expert fearing this could increase the risk of them melting faster this year.

A jet stream transporting large amounts of smoke and ash this week from the blazes in Victoria and New South Wales deposited them along the way in New Zealand's South Island as they traveled east, according to CNN meteorologist Michael Guy.

Pictures and videos taken on New Year's Day show that the yellow haze had discolored the snowy mountain peaks and glaciers in the Southern Alps.

A photo taken on January 1 shows the Fox and Franz Josef glaciers in New Zealand, which have turned brown as a result of Australian bushfire smoke and ash.

Rey, an Australian woman living in Wellington, snapped some of these photos on Fox and Franz Josef glaciers.

"We took a flight up over Fox and Franz Josef glaciers (from Franz Josef township) and landed on a flat surface not too far from the glaciers, not on a glacier per se. The pilot said he had been up the day before and the snow was white," Rey, who didn't want to give her full name, told CNN.

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