‘Typos’ are the bane of any editor. No matter how many times you look at a word or sentence during the production phase of a magazine (or ad or brochure or other written product) chances are when you have hard copy in hand, or on screen, some bugger with fresh eyes will find a mistake.
In last month’s issue of the mag one that caught me out was in Murray Taylor’s story of a winter wander down the West Coast.
In it he mentioned the Haast ‘Hollywood’ Concept Rd. When I was re-reading the story for upload to our monthly e-newsletter I thought “hang on, that can’t be right,” so googled Haast Concept... and came up with a fascinating post about the over 100-year history of a proposed ‘link road’ between Haast (or rather the current roadhead at Jackson Bay) via the Hollyford (not Hollywood!) Valley to the Milford Sound road.
Which got me thinking.
If you read the Wikipedia post thoroughly, the idea of a road has made a lot of sense since the 1880s, yet no government has been able to push it through for a variety of reasons. In fact the closest any (government) got was towards the end of the Great Depression when public works were used to soak up the large number of able-bodied men out of work. And the Milford Road was one of the results.
Then work started at both ends of the proposed Haast-Hollyford Road but ended as the war effort intensified late in the 1930s.
Various figures have been bandied around as to completing a link (or rather, loop) road with ‘a billion dollars’ the one that resonates the most.
As I see it though, whatever it cost would be immaterial in terms of the long-term value to Kiwis and tourists alike.
In much the same way completing the ‘loop’ around the top of the Coromandel Peninsula would. Sure you can ‘tramp’ or mountain bike the bit with no road between Fletcher Bay and Port Charles (which I did years ago on a dirt bike!). But why the road has not been put through as a matter of national interest (rather than the interests of small, vocal pressure groups), I do not know.
According to the latest Government. statistics, international tourist expenditure accounts for $14.5 billion (or 20.7 percent of NZ’s total export earnings) and tourism directly contributes $12.9 billion (or 5.6 percent) to NZ’s total GDP.
Yet small-minded locals are still moaning about freedom campers “shitting in the woods!”
Every indication is that the number of tourists flying in is on the up, too. To the year ending August 2017, for instance, there was a growth of 21 percent from the US (no prizes for guessing why that was…), 15 percent from the UK and 14 percent from Germany.
Sure killjoy environmentalist luddites will be quick to pour cold water on any plan to – shock, horror – build another ‘filthy, polluting road’ through a pristine national park. But anyone who has enjoyed the privilege, as I have, of traversing the (restricted access) Borland Saddle/Willmot Pass Rd which services the Manapouri Power Station, will understand, roads do not have to be eyesores, or adversely impact on their surroundings.
If it is going to come down to dollars, why don’t we just build the bloody things and slap a toll on them. Build it, and they will come, I have absolutely no doubt about that!
That’s my two cents worth, anyway. Agree or disagree, your feedback is always welcome at editor@nz4wd.co.nz
