mikelove said:
NZ's human geography seems a bit awkward - major cities are too far apart to drive (without spending the whole day driving) and too close to fly, and while in some countries in that situation (Japan, e.g.) they've solved that problem using high-speed rail, NZ's population is probably way too small to sustain that; Ireland has roughly 2x the population of North Island in a comparable land area and with similarly spread-out cities and their train network is anemic at best compared to the rest of Europe. And so like NZ they seem to rely mainly on cars and buses.
I don't see NZ as being completely unable to support high-speed rail, and there are a few things in it's favour. The first is that it would probably be not significantly slower than taking a plane down to Wellington, and could stop at a few other major touristy places on the way (e.g. Hamilton, which is the largest city in the Waikato region, Taupo, and maybe Palmerston North). Taking it across Cook Strait would probably be too expensive, though. The Channel Tunnel seems to have been on the order of €1B, and that had two large countries investing in it.
The other reason high-speed rail might work is that the majority of international flights cannot land in Wellington - the airport is just too small to handle large international airliners (even existing smaller aircraft that use it apparently cannot take off when fully loaded due to the size of the runway) - and there's no room to expand either - which results in Wellingtonians having to travel up to Auckland (or possibly Christchurch?) if they want to go anywhere apart from Australia or the Pacific Islands, and tourists having to either fly or drive down - driving is a full days work (as you point out), but at least you can stop at other places on the way. Flying is quicker (maybe 2 hours, including checkin time and whatnot), but you can't stop on the way. High-speed rail would (I believe) combine the best of both - quicker than a car, but can stop at more places than a plane (though not as fast a plane, nor as much choice as a car). That, and by hitting Auckland, Hamilton, Palmerston North and Wellington, you would hit a good 60% of the North Island's population, Auckland being over 1/3 all by itself.
Something similar could be done in the South Island, going Picton - Christchurch - Queenstown - Dunedin - Invercargill, I imagine.
Course, that's probably just wishful thinking on my part - even assuming we have the passenger numbers to maintain it (and I suspect we would, provided it was done right), the construction costs would likely sink it.
Hmmm, that's a little more than I was intending to write about that. Guess I'm just a little annoyed that, despite New Zealand being an awesome place, getting around is just a little harder than it is elsewhere in the world (and there's good reason for that).
Oh, and this is an Android thread on a forum about Chinese - English dictionary software... Ok, on-topic contribution: Wellington's public transport is fairly well integrated into Google Maps, with all the bus stops listed (and you can click for when the next buses are *due* to arrive, which is helpful. And would be more helpful if the buses were actually on time). Google Maps comes with Android. Therefore, relevant. Also, not sure you'll have much use for Pleco in NZ, although Auckland does have most of the country's Chinese population, as far as I understand it.
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