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History as Hawaiki cable makes shoreMangawhai has become indelibly etched in New Zealand history with the culmination of a six year, multi-million dollar operation – bringing the Hawaiki international submarine cable a total of 15,000km safely ashore at Bream Tail Farm. The cable links Mainland USA, New Zealand, Australia and ultimately American Samoa to landing stations, setting up a modern and sophisticated international communications network. The landing had been postponed on several occasions due to bad weather and although the weather gods were still not happy on Tuesday February 13, they settled enough to allow the feeder ship CS Responder to sit with some stability offshore. Tenders and divers took the several hours necessary to effect the landing of the cable – which was supported by a row of buoys – to the surf zone where it was welcomed and blessed in a powhiri by Te Uri o Hau representatives upon touching the New Zealand beach. This will be the only beach landing. This will be a boon to Northland’s economy in terms of technology, capacity, speed and reliability, a significant step towards global digital connectivity, and will bring greater digital diversity, capacity and security to New Zealand than ever before, contributing to the transformation of Northland’s economic development. An added gong for Northland was longstanding business McKay winning the contract to design and construct the landing station for the cable system. The Cable Landing Station on Cove Rd is an essential piece of the operation said Hawaiki Cable Ltd CEO, Remi Galaso: “This was a key step forward in getting the cable to NZ.” The regional council, Northland Inc and other key players involved in this exciting project believe it will generate significant flow-on benefits for Northland in having increased diversity in its connections to the rest of the world. General Manager of infrastructure for Northland Inc, Vaughan Cooper, was on hand at the arrival of the cable as it was welcomed by Te Uri o Hau. “This is a very significant event for tangata whenua as far as embracing the rest of the world and the opportunities that brings,” he said, notwithstanding that the name Hawaiki is the mythical homeland of Maori. The Mangawhai landing is roughly the midway point of the job, with 7000km buried about two metres under the seabed. From Mangawhai work will continue towards Samoa where the cable will be connected to the Sydney-Oregon stretch. The cable is scheduled to be switched on in June, and will ultimately double New Zealand’s international communications capacity. |
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