Matewx

Want to laugh??

OH can not get his head round the fact that both Islands are not connected...

He's saying that there should be a Bridge like between Wales or a tunnel like the Eurostar tunnel...

Bless

BEVS

Sounds good to me. Now all I need is the Startrek 'beam me up Scotty ' thingy tube so I never have to do that blummin' awful two day journey back to the UK or Europe again.

Persephone

Great idea but you just wouldn't get those amazing views of the Marlborough Sounds that you get on the ferry; depending on the weather of course.

I will never forget the view of a desperate gentleman throwing up in the bin next to me on a particularly rough crossing Yeah, that did wonders for the vague feelings of nausea that were starting in the pits of my stomach I managed to hold on though

The Star Trek teleporter thing would be fantastic, apart from getting back to the UK very quickly I could use it to get to work and have an extra 15 minutes in bed every morning

scrubbedexpat094

I always wanted one of those when I'd done a night shift

Kiwiprincess

They can't put a bloody bridge across.

It would interfere with the Sydney to Auckland InterPacific Highway currently being built. They are putting an off ramp just North of Wellington City (approx Paekakariki) so you may have heard of it.

The tolls are going to be quite high though. Still, I suspect it will be popular with backpackers.

Persephone

Ah yes I have heard of that. I think the plan is to build a roundabout in the middle of the Cook Strait eventually, thereby you'd have the option of driving to Picton, Auckland or Sydney. I did hear that the left hand lane was going to be two lanes wider to account for all the kiwis leaving to live in Oz

Charismatic

Actually the bridge isn't such a silly idea, at the shortest point it's only about 22km between the islands IRRC. A bridge of that distance is easily within the grasp of modern civil engineering (in fact it would rate as the worlds 13th longest bridge looking at wiki so it's not even a technical feat).

And here is where I use the standard "we can't do it" excuse that New Zealand is so famous for. After all we are just a small island in the south pacific etc...

Kiwiprincess

That's true. But it's got a bloody big trench so wouldn't it need incredibly deep piles and base isolators (aren't there a number of very very active faults right smack bang in there...causing the North Island and South Island to be moving apart, albeit slowly)? Isn't the strait around 400m deep in a few trenches? I have no real idea though.


And on a far more important note, and one which would stop me using it is that there is no way in the world I would last 10 minutes on a road in that area without hurling my cookies. Curly and curvy.

Not to mention the entire population using it will probably consist of 4 backpackrs, 3 campervans and a postie delivering the mail to the local Department of Conservation Ranger.

Side note about driving: I was intrigued to learn that if you go to the Manapouri Power Station the vehicle access tunnel requires you to drive on the right hand side. Apparently the only right hand side driving in the country. I found that interesting. I think I would be scared to hell about being down there though. Although, maybe that far down you would be able to spot the American submarines where they are hanging about. That would be good.

Kiwiprincess

And I realise that Manapouri & Fiordland is not exactly up around Marlborough!!!