Bond, James Bond!
Winya_wynah
Thu 28 Jan 2010 08:01
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On the way home from Doubtful Sound we made a visit
to a marvel of NZ engineering. Or the 'bad guy's' lair depending on how we
look at things.
We entered a tunnel drilled and blasted through the
rock to make an access road, rough rock walls 7m wide and with a 1:10
gradient descending in a steady spiral there is a 10m turning bay
at the bottom, we were in an 11m bus.... that's what the driver
said!
Sucessfully turned and heading up again we stopped
at the viewing level and went through a side tunnel.
 James, I suppose would have used the tradesmen's
entrance but the result always looks like this...
 Sadly there were no overalled minions rushing about
doing not very much but the noise was familiar.
These structures in the huge
manmade cavern are of course the top bearings of the turbines
producing loads of electricity, principally for the aluminium smelting plant in
Bluff but up to also 15% goes the national grid. Standing
on the viewing platform one can only see the shafts spinning within the
blue casing.
The water driving the turbines below this floor
comes from the 'uphill end' of Lake Manapouri so no dam involved!
There are 7 chutes cut down through the rock to give the water a
200m drop to the level of the turbines. After the turbine the water
continues it's way downhill through 2 'tailrace' tunnels and exits into Doubtful
Sound not at all where it would have ended up pre-hydroelectric power
station. Thats a bit 'bad guy' but still no JB in sight, since the
conservationists are now happy that water levels are as they should be in
the lake.
 Turns out the only bad guy we saw that day was this
naughty chap a Kea, the Kea is a NZ native, he/she is an alpine parrot and
is an inquisitive, cheeky, destructive bird. They seem to spend a lot of
time on the ground where they jump along sometimes forwards, sometimes
sideways. They will steel anything they fancy including the rubber holding
windscreens in white vans. Thankfully ours is intact as far as we
know... However they leave the best 'til last and when they finally decide
to fly off the underside of their wings are bright orange, there are signs
everywhere pleading with the tourists ''Don't feed the Kea'' , on your head be
it!
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