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INVESTIGATION: Is it possible to commute from Hamilton to Auckland using the new $92m Te Huia train service? 4:30am: You wake up to your blaring alarm in the suburbs of Hamilton. Your day is already off to a bad start. 5:30am: Your commute begins. You drive to the Frankton train station. 5:46am: You board the train in the nick of time. The carriage is empty. Thanks to a massive taxpayer subsidy, your fare is only $17. 7:25am: You arrive in Papakura, after 98 minutes on the train. That’s more than enough time to watch the 1996 Ewan McGregor classic Trainspotting. But your co

Problem is it's not going to work and they will use it as "proof" that rail doesn't work. 3h is far too long, needs to be 45-55min, entirely possible without high-speed rail. Don't need wider rail spacing, plenty of trains in the world run fast on a narrow gauge like ours. Do need electrification of the Hamilton to Auckland stretch. Do need to put a tunnel under the hill from Pokeno directly north. Train needs to run every hour from 5am through to 11pm. This way it gives the flexibility for people to actually use it. Fast stops (2 min max) in: Te Rapa, Ngaruawahia,

Fogg, please. That's a simplistic view at best. I lived in Basingstoke and commuted to the Oxford street for a while, and had a cousin that lived further south than that and commuted into the city for years. The difference is that although it's still a haul it's a feasible exercise because there are regular trains. They also have the population to make it feasible to run those trains, we don't. (and that's not even starting on the dificulties Auckland has being on an isthmus let alone decades of 'lets just build more roads'). Also, it's quite easy for one person to live near thei

They are loking at AK to TGA,had the silver fern back in 2000,left papakura 6.00pm tga by 9.00pm.Looking AK the whangarei. Agree"Fogg" live near to your work with staggered start/finish times.I am within 13ks of work.Mind you that 13ks in the afternoon about 4.00pm can take an hour.Wouldnt want to travel much further.Why sit in a car/train/bus for 3hrs a day??

The problem with Auckland and the surrounding regions is that too many people live too far away from their place of work. This struck me when I moved here 20yrs ago and met people living on the north shore who worked (and commuted) to East Tamaki for example. WTF?! Where I came from nobody in their right mind would live north of London and commute daily through the city to work south. And this is even proven by traffic flows. Apparently if you take a helicopter view of the morning and evening rush hours in Auckland central it is very difficult to tell which pic is which - which is almost uniqu

I did this recently. Used the topping lift and an extra halyard to support the boom right above the pickup point. I just used the mainsheet to do the lifting. Lifted it, lowered it partially on the cockpit floor and slid the mainsheet pickup along the boom. Picked it up again, swung out over the lifelines and dropped it down to the finger. I have PM'd you some photos

A distraction for you, if I may? You'd be surprised how little power you need to move a boat off the mooring / in flat water etc. If Easter cruising is important, there are several options with an outboard. Bolt a tenob bracket (spelling?) one of those lifty things on the back, and just blat around all easter. A certain nameless Commodore did this for most of the summer waiting for their new Beta to arrive on a F1020. Or, if you are game, and the weather benign, you can strap the dinghy amidships with springs, and motor the yacht around like that. Complicated fitting into marina

Two birds, one stone.