Extreme Weather
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@mariner4life said in Extreme Weather:
Give me a shout
There is a shit load that needs fixing
So, does it ever stop raining up here?
Rocked up Tuesday.
Peripheries first ...
Port Douglas is quite a buzz huh? Staying at the inlet end of Marcrossan St. Pubs EVERYWHERE. Have decided my mission is an incremental pub crawl: one beer (one that I wouldn't normally drink) at each licensed venue on Marcrossan, one per night, while I'm here.
Beer only. Can't afford to eat here.
First time around is 15 nights. Next stint may not be so central nor even in Dougie (as I've decided to call it ... Rocky, Bundy, Goldy, Sunny Coast ...) depending on accommodation availability.
But that's not why I'm here.
Getting a feel for the magnitude of the issue. Something in the order of $100-130M of work, and only 13,000 residents. Enter the State Govt and the taxpayers of Australia.
Made it across the Daintree River today up across the "Alex" Range. 18 land slips across about 6km. Not the "we'll just dig out and get rid of the dirt from on top of the road" type, more the "oh, that's where the road went down there" type.
But not as isolated as I thought, yet.
Real push to get roads fully operational for the tourist season (they're open but restricted in hours, and in length of vehicle). Area relies on tourism.
On going longer term availability of accommodation and office space (for a decent sized team that needs recruiting) looks a real challenge as well.
Looks like an intense few months/years coming up.
Expect visits to Cairns will be restricted to passing from Airport, to hire car, to Dougie, and return. But will give the Cairns division of TSF a shout if the opportunity avails itself.
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@nzzp said in Extreme Weather:
@booboo said in Extreme Weather:
Beer only. Can't afford to eat here.
wait wut? Is it just crazy expensive? Why is that - distance from civilisation?
I was up there last year and didn't think food was too expensive. But then again a pub meal is as fancy as I get. Mrs Crazy Horse is a lucky girl.
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It's not any more expensive than anywhere else
But seriously, do yourself a favour and go eat at Salsa. It's sensational
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Are you doing north of the river? Because it appears th3 fixing of the Cairns to Port section is about to start in earnest
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@Machpants haha yea we had the heat pump come on this morning.
Think it was 5 at our place, no power outage like the scare mongering yesterday.
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@Rapido rest of winter, we arent even in winter yet haha
Just shows how fragile our power infrastructure is (also highlighted last year after Gabrielle visited and the large pylon supplying 300k people in Northland, was close to a slip)
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@taniwharugby said in Extreme Weather:
Just shows how fragile our power infrastructure is
All power infrastructure is fragile on unstable ground (like most of NZ).
This in fairness was pre-winter maintenance, combined with abnormally cold, still conditions. It really highlights the storage issues with intermittent power though ... maybe a hydro dam or two will sneak into the fast track legislation?
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@mariner4life said in Extreme Weather:
It's not any more expensive than anywhere else
But seriously, do yourself a favour and go eat at Salsa. It's sensational
Noted. Might save it until Mrs Boo travels up.
Did have rather nice half price Pizza at Rattle n Hum.
And seriously a $76 steak (Iron Bar) blows my entire per diem.
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@mariner4life said in Extreme Weather:
Are you doing north of the river? Because it appears th3 fixing of the Cairns to Port section is about to start in earnest
Yeah. That's Main Roads. I'm working for the Council. State Road only goes to Daintree.
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@Machpants said in Extreme Weather:
Crazy extreme cold in NZ, coldest for decades. Was 7 this morning at home!
Yeah? What's with that? Threats of blackouts because chilly? Since when did NZ become a third world country?
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@booboo said in Extreme Weather:
@Machpants said in Extreme Weather:
Crazy extreme cold in NZ, coldest for decades. Was 7 this morning at home!
Yeah? What's with that? Threats of blackouts because chilly? Since when did NZ become a third world country?
Since we became a country that uses electricity for heating instead of firewood, gas and coal
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@nzzp said in Extreme Weather:
@taniwharugby said in Extreme Weather:
Just shows how fragile our power infrastructure is
All power infrastructure is fragile on unstable ground (like most of NZ).
This in fairness was pre-winter maintenance, combined with abnormally cold, still conditions. It really highlights the storage issues with intermittent power though ... maybe a hydro dam or two will sneak into the fast track legislation?
As per RNZ:
Transpower has said the problem with supply was due to 700MW of generation being offline due to maintenance.
I know that the gas TCC plant at Stratford is offline until 2025, was munted last year - a loose blade flew through the guts of it.
That is a 375MW plant according to the internet.Last year when the rolling blackout got (incorrectly) applied to North Waikato. There was out of action: the TCC plant (still is), plus the 400MW Huntly unit 5 (which came back online according to the internet in Jan or Feb this year), plus a major hydro plant went out of action short term (but at the wrong time) because some weed got sucked into it.
For this winter, NZ will still be down that 375MW for the entire winter. But compared to last year have gained 174mw of geothermal, plus a 35MW battery, in terms of guaranteed peak power supply. (Have also had 2 solar farms plus 1 and a half wind farms come online in last 6 months)
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@nzzp my comment re fragility was more the fact pretty much 300k of people in Northland were at the whim of one main line coming North, rather than the land instability.
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@taniwharugby said in Extreme Weather:
@nzzp my comment re fragility was more the fact pretty much 300k of people in Northland were at the whim of one main line coming North, rather than the land instability.
fair.
There is a narrow isthmus to go over - near Kaiwaka, it's only 13km coast to coast (at the narrowest point).
But it's a long way to run a second line for only 300k people, particularly over the Northland Allocthon (which is some seriously shit ground). Consider a genny? Power outages up north seem more common than not.
Also, Ngawha is online and providing 32MW ... and did I see they were expanding it?
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@nzzp said in Extreme Weather:
Also, Ngawha is online and providing 32MW ... and did I see they were expanding it?
Expanded to 56MW in 2021 (that 32MW is actually the expansion on the existing 5MW and 15 MW units already there).
There are also possiblity of expanding it by another 32 MW on top of that, with a 5th unit.Top Energy is actually self sufficient, and does export some into the grid southwards. So Northpower (taniwha's lines company) would be getting a bit from the north, and the rest/most over the single grid line from the south.
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@booboo said in Extreme Weather:
@mariner4life said in Extreme Weather:
Are you doing north of the river? Because it appears th3 fixing of the Cairns to Port section is about to start in earnest
Yeah. That's Main Roads. I'm working for the Council. State Road only goes to Daintree.
Fix the water
