Transport in New Zealand
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With a mountainous topography and a relatively small population mostly distributed around a long coastline, New Zealand offers many challeneges to the transportation engineer. Today, road and air are the dominant forms of transportation.
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Pre European
Canoe and foot were the only forms of transport available to the Māori, with rivers playing a significant role in their transport system.
Roads
The New Zealand State Highway network that provides the backbone infrastructure joining towns together is administered by Transit New Zealand.
Other roads and streets are managed by the local city or district council. Some roads are under the control of the New Zealand Department of Conservation.
Speed limits on the open road are 100 km/h, with 50km/h the most common limit in residential areas. Speeds limits of 60,70,and 80 km/h are also used in urban expressways, and the latter two for main highways as they pass through small towns. Speeds are often reduced to 30 km/h beside roadworks.
New Zealand has a bizarre lane marking system; see lane for more information.
Highways
(see New Zealand State Highway network)
total:
92,200 km
paved:
53,568 km (including at least 144 km of expressways)
unpaved:
38,632 km (1996 est.)
Railways
Main article: Rail transport in New Zealand
There is a total of 3,898 km of railway line in New Zealand, all of it narrow gauge (1.067 m). Of this, 506 km is electrified, (from 2002 data.) The national network is owned by New Zealand Railways Corporation, a government entity; most trains are operated by Toll Rail Ltd.
The national network consists of three main trunk lines, seven secondary main lines and around 90 branch lines. The majority of the latter are now closed. Most lines were constructed by government organisations but a few were of private origin and were later nationalised. Between 1994 and 2003 the national network was owned by Tranz Rail Ltd, which was taken over by Toll Rail Ltd in 2003.
The Federation of Rail Organisations of New Zealand coordinates the work of approximately 60 heritage line and rail museum operations around the country. Most of these are operated by groups of volunteers and have a historical or tourist focus.
Waterways
New Zeland has 1,609 km of navigable waterways; no longer of any importance to transportation. The two main islands are divided by Cook Strait, 24km wide at its narrowest point, but requiring a 70km ferry trip to cross.
Pipelines
Petroleum products 160 km; natural gas 1,000 km; liquified petroleum gas (LPG) 150 km.
Ports and harbours
- Container Ports: Auckland, Wellington, Lyttelton (Christchurch), Port Chalmers (Dunedin)
- Other Ports: Whangarei, Devonport (Auckland), Tauranga, Gisborne, Napier, New Plymouth, Wanganui, Nelson, Picton, Westport, Greymouth, Timaru, Bluff.
- Harbours: Akaroa, Half Moon Bay (Stewart Island), Milford Sound.
- Fresh Water: Rotorua (Lake Rotorua), Taupo (Lake Taupo), Queenstown and Kingston (Lake Wakatipu), Te Anau and Manapouri (Lake Manapouri)
Merchant marine
total:
9 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 69,685 GRT/106,627 DWT
ships by type:
bulk 3, cargo 2, container 1, petroleum tanker 2, roll-on/roll-off 1 (2002 est.)
Airports
There are 113 airports in New Zealand (2002 est.). The main international airport is Auckland Airport, which handled about 9.4 million passengers in the year to June 30, 2003 [1] (http://archives.californiaaviation.org/airport/msg28149.html). Christchurch Airport and Wellington Airport each handle about 4 million passengers per year.
Airports - with paved runways
total:
46
over 3,047 m:
2
2,438 to 3,047 m:
1
1,524 to 2,437 m:
10
914 to 1,523 m:
28
under 914 m:
5 (2002)
Airports - with unpaved runways
total:
67
1,524 to 2,437 m:
2
914 to 1,523 m:
26
under 914 m:
39 (2002)
Heliports
1 (2002)
Reference
Much of the material in this article comes from the CIA World Factbook, 2003 edition.
See also
External link
Ministry of Transport (http://www.transport.govt.nz/)