Manapouri Hydro Station

I honestly have no idea why we wasted part of the trip driving through a tunnel to look at a hydro power station, but we did. I think the Manapouri Hydro Power Station partly funds the tours of Doubtful Sound. However, one good thing came out of the trip...

Preface:

My Dad was a Public Relations man before he retired. I appreciate good PR. However, I equally appreciate a good story about PR gone wrong (Palin’s Gobble Debacle comes to mind).

During the tour we saw the underground power plant (interesting, I suppose) and there were tons of pics of the construction. For me, however, one particular image stood out. It was a PR moment where the very last blast was scheduled to be set off by a political official.

Let me quote the sign before the image:

“1968: Justice Minister Ralph Hanan [ceremoniously] fires the last shot in the first tunnel, which was packed with too much dynamite.”



Classic.