#1 - Jennifer Lewis 2009-07-30 09:53 - (Reply)

Building that bridge will absolutely transform the Coromandel region. My husband and I are in week 2 of a 4 week trip to NZ from the U.S. to investigate business opportunities in NZ and have very quickly figured out that the transportation infrastructure here is a major impediment to economic growth in NZ. We were actually in Thames yesterday as well and commented as we waited to cross that 90 year old 1 lane bridge that it must seriously choke off the traffic into that area. An Auckland couple we met at lunch in Danbys agreed. Not to mention that both the museums in town that the Info Center staff sent us to visit turned out to be closed. This was majorly frustrating after a 3 hour journey there which was lenghtended by sitting in traffic around Auckland for over an hour at 10:30 am. The fact that you major North South motorway the 1 is essentially 2 lanes from your 2 biggest cities on the North Island and essentially has no service stops along the way is quite frankly very surprising to us. Although as a U.S. residents with a strong economic and legal educations and intimate familiarity with the current financial crisis - there is a upside to all this. Could it be that small roads/transportion infrastructure are what has lead to NZ incredible proliferation of small businesses which may well be the reason you are faring better than places like the US and UK because you avoid the systemic risks associated with the Too Big To Fail policies of the US and the UK????? Also, you are better able to avoid announcing huge (in the thousands) of employment layoffs.