It's a good question, Mark (24 February 2026)

Marcus talks coffee, takes a trucking question from Mark, and gets your recollections of the Kaimai Tunnel collapse of 1970.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Marcus lush Night's podcast from News Talks, that'd.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Be greetings and welcome here on midnight tonight. I hope
it's good we or if it's not good, I hop
it gets better by the time we finish at midnight,
We and Dan and Tim come along there. Tim will
come along at midnight tonight. If you want to be
a part of the show. Oh, eight hundred and eighty
ten eighty and nine nine two dexts, not one form
fixed topic for tonight. We'll keep it bright, tight and real.

(00:32):
Won't be about the dogs. It's been a fereod of time.
I'm picking that conversation yesterday, but there we go. Put
that one aside for another couple of years. Feel free
to come throughf you want to join the chat. Anything goes.
You've got topics you want to mention talk about. Say,
don't know what's the mood of the nation tonight, but
if there is breaking news, you've got to let us
know what that is. You never quite know, and that's
going to sneak up on us. But there's some news,

(00:53):
you've got something you feel free to discuss or you
want to discuss, by the way, not long left for summer,
only four days left of summer. I had no idea.
I thought there was weeks left to go. But of
course we're any on the first of March, because February
is short, by the way to today. Today in history
was the day that they changed the calendar in eighteen

(01:15):
and fifteen eighty two. It became the Gregorian calendar. One
of my dream projects is to simplify the calendar. I'd
like February to be longer. I don't know the ramifications
of that, but I think that's about time. But yeah,
I would imagine that the the chance of that happening
is revery slim. So I don't even know what to
more to say about that. But that's not going to

(01:36):
be a thing, sort of thing that Trump would probably
want to change, isn't it. The calendar? That sort of
thing probably hid back himself to do. By the way too,
as far as history goes. And I was surprised to
learn this because I've never talked about this on the show.
Oh this is not a great confessional thing, but I
have just been reading that today, the twenty fourth of

(01:57):
March is the anniversary of the disaster. Wait, I don't
know what you would call it a disaster. But as
the day the Kaimi Tunnel collapsed. So the Kaimi Tunnel
was a tunnel through the Kaimi is to connect the
the train lines to Todonga and I guess down as

(02:18):
far as Mudapada into the network and the tunnel they did.
There was already a ready to go round there, I
think through the gorge, but they thought the tunn would
be a bitter way and they built a tunnel, not
with boring machines. I think it was with just well
pick and shovel, but probably slightly more. Ultimately, this was
nineteen seventy and there was a cavern and I didn't
even actually realize that I've been reading about that before

(02:39):
I came on air tonight that.

Speaker 3 (02:42):
It was.

Speaker 2 (02:43):
And I was five at the time, but it was
a new story that I certainly remember now. Some of
you will have better recollections about this than I do,
because I was five and TV was not great. It
was a its infancy. I shouldn't say it wasn't great,
but rolling news. But I remember that being one of
those stories that people were very much fixated on and
following along. It went for eighty hours four people died.

(03:09):
There were twelve workers trapped in there, and I think
it was at the western side of the tunnel. But yeah,
I've never talked about this, and there is a memorial
for that also that's near the portal of the tunnel
for those people that did die. And of course tunneling,
as we know, is a very dangerous occupations. We look

(03:31):
at those people that died in the Milford Tunnel and
the Kaimi Tunnel, also the tunnel from Manapuri, the tunnel
racers there. I think in the Milford Tunnel day there's
to say a man a mile was the cost of it.
But yeah, I don't know if you anyone that has
the recollection of that. They'd been tunneling for five years
before it collapsed. It started nineteen sixty five, but it

(03:53):
was nineteen seventy on this day. On this day I
think was the caven not when those people were rescued,
But yeah, it was very much. It was very much
one of those news stories that galvanized the country, perhaps
not like a news story has done since, so if
you have any recollections, and by the way, too, it
was also a tunnel was going to be a freight
tunnel and a passenger tunnel, but there are no passenger

(04:14):
trains going through that anymore, although they could I think
excusions maybe go that way. So you've got any memories
about that, I'd be really really curious to know. So
it's a while ago, now it's fifty six years ago.
You've got any recollection of that, that would be a
very much of interest to me. I also know about
that because I have a bottle of memorial bear that

(04:38):
was issued for the opening of the Kaimi Tunnel when
that eventually happened. Actually, I don't know where that was.
I took it out of the room because the label
was fading. It was a dB bear, I think too.
So yeah, that might have some and that might prompt
some discussion also. So yeah, I don't know how many
people were involved in the making of the tunnel, but
you might have been one of those people. It's something
that I've never really discussed. I guess probably thousands were

(05:01):
working on it. It is New Zealand's longest railway tunnel.
It's just under nine kilometers long. Yeah, I think that
Lima Taka Tunnel was the longest, and that became the
longest and the longest before the Limataka Tunnel was your
Teater tunnel. I think that's my tunnel facts, right, But yep,
so the old route for the old tune used to
go through the Karangaki Gorge, but they did the tunnel

(05:22):
was much much better. So you've got these comments on that.
That was just something that spring to mind for me
tonight that it's the anniversary of that. But it was
very much some of you will know your oldest It
was very much one of those news stories where people
were talking about have they found them yet, have they
discovered them, have they got them? They're there for eighty hours,
almost four days. I don't know if it would have
been live crosses into bulletins or quite what it would

(05:43):
have been. I don't fully know what the technology would
have been like then they had outside broadcast things to
report from the portals. But that's one of the things
we are talking about tonight or hopefully and if you've
got other stuff that you want to talk about, do
come through so your show remember that eight hundred and
eighty ten eighty You might be might be like me

(06:04):
that thinks about changes to the calendar and the Chaimi
Tunnel disaster by the way I can tell you Dunedin's
Mad Butcher has closed. It doesn't seem to be the
chain it used to be. We had when in ver
Cargo didn't last long. Now the Dunedin one has gone.
Seems very much like it's a franchise that's winding down.

(06:25):
I guess the Mad Butcher himself is probably not involved
with it anymore. But yeah, that's a sad end too.
What was a beloved franchise in the country, Well, I
don't think it was originally was a franchise ever. Originally
it was just the Mad Butcher had all the shops.
But yeah, if that hasn't gone so well by looks
of things anyway, That's what I've got for you. Oh,
as I say, if you've got topics yourself that you

(06:45):
want to mention, I kind of kind of quite like
the loose stuff. I've got a problem with that. The
papers seem to have gone quiet on the former Prince Andrew.
You might probably slightly sick of him, but there was
discussion and that news bulleted up at eight o'clock about
whether we should who cares there is zero chance of
him becoming King zero eighth doesn't get it, so I

(07:09):
think it's all very fun for people to talk about, Oh,
should we get rid of him? Shouldn't we get rid
of them? Should?

Speaker 4 (07:14):
You know?

Speaker 2 (07:14):
But and it shows how yes, we've got connections to that,
we've got our say because he in fact is our
head of state. But you'd need seven people to die,
and they're not going to all die when they're not
even the same building most of the time. You got
Harry and his kids. They're in Calabasas. So yeah, I'm
not the slightest but concerned about that. I'm not a

(07:35):
great defender of the royals, but I don't care if
he's out potential head of state or not. Because he's
eight that it's not really going to come to fruition.
And I think probably the longer it goes is more
people have more kids, would that be right? I think
when probably George and Charlotte have children, then he's even
further down there and that won't be far away. You
say the kids now, but you never know before you know,
they grow up anyway. Oh, eight hundred and eighty ten

(07:56):
eighty nine, ninety decks. My name is Marcus. Looking forward
to what you've got to say tonight. There's something else
you want to mention that is it feel free to
get through. I just don't want to talk about dogs
tonight because it became a lot talking about dog people.
Now someone's asked, was the disaster on the twenty fourth
of March or the twenty fourth of February? Very much

(08:17):
it was during the twenty fourth of February. I'm looking
at the new Puddin. It's said. On the twenty fourth
of February nineteen seventy, during the early starts of underground work,
a cave in trapped twelve of the workers. I might
have said March anyone, but certainly I meant February. I'm
ahead of myself, but certainly very much today. I am
aware today is February, February area, so you get in

(08:39):
touch of you I mentioned that or anything else. The
only other topic I've got is Korean chicken. That's taking
over the country, isn't it. You wonder when the biggies
like KFC will start doing Korean chicken. They're losing market share.
I reckon, I don't quite know what Korean chicken is,
but gosh, when you've got four premises in Invert Cargill,
you know it's on the way up. It might be

(09:02):
a I don't even know what the definition. I think
it's quite a recent thing. Korean chicken. I don't think
the chickens are from COREA. It's a style of cooking
them we have mentioned on the show before. I don't
fully know what it's about, so I couldn't really explain
that to you straight away. I think it's crunchier than
your KFC and your Popeyes. Don't know they for a

(09:22):
fact though, But anyway, I'll keep talking till we get
our first calls through. Someone said Andrew will be safe
in Wormwood scrubs. Well, I think if Andrew goes to prison,
his bodyguards go with him, which doesn't seem fair to them,
does it. But I guess they'd do shifts. But probably
what would happen is they'd build their own present. Then

(09:43):
they might just use the tower. I don't know fully
much too much about the incarceration of royals, and I
can't say much about that, but yes, that's the situation.
They're eighteen passed eight as I say, oh, eight hundred
and eighty ten eighty. I can tell you that the
tran tasman Auckland Sydney Yacht race. Sidney Auckland Yacht Race
has been postponed due to the withdrawal of most entries.

(10:07):
Supposed to start on Friday, and it was supposed to
be the first running of the Trans Tasman Yacht Race,
but I don't know why all the yachts have pulled out.
I can't find that report. But that's the thing I've
always kind of surprised me about ocean yacht races, as
you're ending up where you don't want to be a
lot of faffing around, isn't it AnyWho? Nineteen past eight

(10:31):
o'clock looking forward to your col hit or midnight tonight.
There is some discussion about how the tunnel was built
for what it's and it was a nine K tunnel,
the Komi Tunnel. They did have a TBM tunnel boring machine,
but I don't think it really worked. The Java MK
twenty one tunnel boring machine was used along with traditional

(10:52):
drill and blast methods, but I think the rock was
quite different. It was harder rock than they envisaged, so
it was a lot more difficult as often as the
case and to site would be what it was Elligmanites
at the but that's the situation, so most of a
lot of it was dynamite. Yeah, so that's that. Apparently

(11:15):
the old boring machine was packed outside it for a
long long time afterwards, which are also vague memories of myself,
but some discussions about that. And the boring machine cost
fifty six million dollars, which I don't know if that's
expensive or a lot. You probably convert that to a
billion dollars these days, would you, so Phill, they probably
as you can say, all the lines are as, you
can probably gather. All the lines are free if you

(11:36):
want to come in and talk about that, or Korean
chicken or the calendar or something else that was bouncing around. Oh,
Prince Andrew, and do we really care if he's aligned
to the throne, because it's it's not worth actually wasting
time on because it's the odds that are happening are
incredibly remote. The only time where you've seen lineage like
that's happening was in that situation In wasn't in Nepal

(11:59):
when the whole royal family was shot, but that would
be exceedingly rare. I apologized to Nepal if I've got
that one wrong, But yes, that's situation oh, eight hundred
and eighty ten eighty and nineteen nine to text you. Well,
by the way too, it's gonna get much much cooler
next week or from late this week. Oh and there's
one other thing. I don't want to check the kitchen
sink at you, but there's not happening. The other thing

(12:25):
story that's got some people curious and perhaps might gender
some talk. There's a guy in Willington. He says, the
fair price for coffee is probably ten dollars fifty a cup,
and they are subsidizing most other coffees. Well, they're subsidizing
coffees by paying ten dollars fifty for them. Well, they're

(12:47):
subsidizing by not charging ten dollars fifty. They're charging these
for them and having to readly subsiderve. Yeah, but so
I've read the whole article. But what it does say
in the article, he says, we sell more banana bread
lattes at eight dollars than we do cappuccinos for six
dollars eighty. I've never heard of a banana bread latte.

(13:07):
It doesn't sound like a good thing. But if someone
could tell me what that is, that would make my
day a bit more special a banana bred. I thought
that was a banana bread was a thing. I didn't
know that a banana bread latte was a thing. So
that there you go, as you say, she's all on
people eight hundred and eighty ten eighty and nine two
nine two detext ah. The other thing, it looks like

(13:30):
Australia is investigating high speed rail, which I presume would
be meg levs. But it's a perfect country for it,
strong and flat, bang it on, perfect, even more reasons
to move. But yeah, it looks like they might be
getting meglev I mean, they have been in Japan for
sixty years and it would rival air travel in Australia.

(13:52):
They wanted to Sydney to Canberra first and then branch
out right around the country. One hundred and fourteen billion dollars.
Not a bad idea, is it. So there you go me,
I do't doesn't say meg leve, but I presume that's
what my most high speed rails gon to be as
magnets up high. So that's it for people, That's what
we've got to talk about or anything that you want
to do. As I say, that's what's happening out there.

(14:15):
Oh and the mad butcher, also mentioning that that's the
slow collapse of that empire. The in Vy cargo shop's gone,
that an Eden shop's gone. You don't necessarily know that
butchers and franchises have always been the right way to
do it. Although there's the Aussie butcher that people say
is for every good. But I don't think they've got
that many franchises out there. And about anyway, Gee, she's

(14:37):
hot in the room, a very hot down south today.
Be pleased to know. It feels like a episolute summer scorture.
But yes, if you want to be involved with the discussion, Oh,
if you want to text nine two nine two anything
else you got up there for your people, get in touch.
You want to start the fray to night the discussion. Oh,
it doesn't say banana bread and a larte. It says

(14:58):
a banana bread. Let's hang, I put my headphones on.
Did you read the article right?

Speaker 5 (15:02):
So?

Speaker 2 (15:02):
I do you think that was.

Speaker 6 (15:05):
No?

Speaker 2 (15:05):
It does say butana bread latte. It says it says
that that's the article for it is his people would
rather pay eight dollars for a banana bread latte. We
sell more banana bread lattes at eight dollars and we
do cappuccinos at six eighty. Well, yes, despite how cosmopolitan
you think bluff might be, I've never heard of a banana

(15:27):
bread latte. And it sounds like a disgusting thing. It
sounds like you combine two okay things. Yeah, it does,
say banana bread latte. Yeah, that's not a good thing.
That's the death of chocolate, of these gimmicks like that
sounds like sort of thing. Starbucks auld do banana bread latte. Sa,
there we go. Any that's not going to get me
to midnight? Is it? Come on? What do you got

(15:47):
people that hear from you?

Speaker 5 (15:50):
Um?

Speaker 2 (15:52):
Oh, Marcus, bread cake was a staple forty years ago,
but I never had banana flavor. Marcus. It's banana bread
and a larte. No, I don't think it is. Someone
says Trump has all of the DECSI classification of you,
ap UFO files. The growing evidence from incredible sources becoming overwhelming.

(16:12):
I think it's the growing evidence about how things bad
going for Trump. They've always been predictive. Things got really bad.
He'd say there's aliens, and that's pretty much what he
is doing. Yes, Andy, Panny and Fergure Oh, gosh, they
are goneburger. I feel for their daughters. Goodness, why would
you they've been living the high life on someone else's money.
Oh no, no, no, sorry for them at all anyway,

(16:36):
being touched you on a partake in the show Marcus
till midnight tonight. There's other texts. You've got texts those
through nine two nine too is the text number. And
here till midnight tonight. There's a bit there for you
to set yourselves into topic wise, although there is something else.
Feel free come through. Yep, there you go. Let's be
hearing from your oh eight hundred and eighty ten eighty
and nine two nine. And you might be like me

(16:57):
and want to change the calendar, and how would you
do it? It's a shame. There's not a number of
days in the year that's visible way thirty that would
The visiar twenty eight would make it better. I might
re engineer that one. David's Marcus.

Speaker 7 (17:12):
Good evening and welcome, get a Marcus.

Speaker 8 (17:15):
Hey your coffee. I'm not a coffee drinker. I'm a
tea drinker. But I've just had a cup of Nestle
hazel nutt sachets. They kind of sachets you get twenty
six in a box, and a box is just about
ten dollars, which works out around well, you can figure
that out under fifty cents. But I don't know anyone
in their right mind who's going to pay eight dollars

(17:36):
for well, is it for real? For a cup of coffee?

Speaker 9 (17:39):
I don't need the head rid money.

Speaker 2 (17:41):
I say the real price is ten dollars fifty. You
are subsidizing the I guess they're making the money on
their food and the coffee is a ten dollars fifty
because they've got to buy the coffee on the futures
market and it's gone up in priced. And that's if
you're playing your staff a living wage. It's a lot
of money.

Speaker 8 (17:57):
It's ridiculous, that's what it is. Now. I've got to
just mention it.

Speaker 2 (18:00):
Hang on, Hang on your sachets? Are they a long
thin sache is? I've seen those? Oh good, aren't they?
Works quite well?

Speaker 8 (18:08):
Nothing wrong with them, and they're frothy and just water
and they have sort of got the suit called the sweetener.

Speaker 2 (18:16):
I think you get those. I think you get those
at Peck and Safe for five dollars. I think you
might be paying too much.

Speaker 8 (18:21):
No, I've seen them up around the dearest don't pay
is about ten dollars. You get twenty six of them
and a boss twenty. Hey, Marcus, I've got to run
something by you because I can't figure how we're going
to get the when this new stadium opens in christ Judge,
fearying tens of thousands of people winning out of the

(18:42):
city without the new rail, the new the new rail
that's been demolished.

Speaker 4 (18:47):
Of course.

Speaker 8 (18:50):
Rail station opened and something happened there because buses ain't
going to cut it, are they. I can't see the.

Speaker 2 (18:57):
People of christ Judge are going to lose the losing
things when that stadium opens and they have so much
trouble getting there. There's no parking anywhere is there.

Speaker 8 (19:06):
That's an issue. And congestion. I've already Barbadis and there
one way system around there. It's not pleasant at the moment,
and it hasn't been during construction, So I don't know
when they've got an event on there, how are we
going to get on. How anyone's going to get one

(19:27):
biggest belief, I don't know.

Speaker 2 (19:28):
I'm just what is the supposed what is the supposed
plan exactly?

Speaker 8 (19:33):
Yeah, I don't know because even when.

Speaker 2 (19:36):
I went to that, took the kids to ead sharing
it that what's that stadium about?

Speaker 10 (19:39):
The yeh?

Speaker 8 (19:41):
I know?

Speaker 2 (19:42):
And that wasn't great with traffic, but people were packed
every week at Cope because it was a residual area
so there was kind of outside houses you could part.
But in town, if it's already busy, there's going to
be nowhere.

Speaker 8 (19:54):
It's going to be a real muddle. It's going to
be a yeah. I don't know, Marcus. We're it by
the eight bore at the moment.

Speaker 2 (20:03):
Were the first thing with the rebuild after the quake
fifty years ago. The should have put the rail system
in would have been great.

Speaker 8 (20:08):
Absolutely, Marcus, because we lost it so it really needed,
in my opinion, to come back. You know, we were
fearing that amount of numbers of people. That's my two
Bob Worth. It's always good to hear you on and
you'll you'll be.

Speaker 2 (20:23):
Right on your bike day. Watched you want as a
bike and a padlock?

Speaker 11 (20:26):
Have you in there lock it up.

Speaker 2 (20:27):
They'll have bike racks. Should be good to go, Dave,
thank you twenty six to nine. Get in touch Marcus
till twelve Beck But of christ Church there people, anything goes.
What about Corey and Chicken? What about a banana bread Larte?
Never heard of it? Marcus kfc here in christ Church
has sold Corey and Chicken before and sitting them hasn't
returned some quite We doubt what Corey and Chicken has,

(20:50):
but I'm up for it, Marcus. Banana bread Lati sounds lovely.
Week can we buy?

Speaker 12 (20:55):
This?

Speaker 2 (20:56):
Is the bread crumbled up in the coffee? You might
have a bred straw you suck it through, but ye're
ten fifty for coffee. That's the real price. Well, no
one would part by it that price, would they? Yourself?
A fulled roll, you'll still get a full roll. You
can't get the full roll of these as always baps
or things, isn't it? Ah and breaking news if you

(21:17):
got up. That's what we're about tonight. I've checked all
the topics that yoube Some of them, well not really,
many of them are stuck. There might be something else,
but yes, everyone seemed obsessed about what Christopher Luxon had
to say about Andrew Mountain Batton and whether he's going
to become is never going to become the head never?
He's eighth in line Godness and even if he did
happen to be in prison our bead bunnies in Australia.

(21:38):
Good on him. There you go. Any who Oh, by
the way, you Tim Beverage along at twelve, no working
on maintenance, so we're good to go. But looking forward
to what you've got, I think it might be one
of those nights we get breaking news. I hope that's
the case. Something kicks in that gets it all going.
What's the weather like there in Auckland down? Is it
the fine night? It's one of those fine nights right

(21:59):
around that fine nights, not finite, one of those fine
nights right out of the country. I suspect lines three
twenty four to nine. Probably the economy too. I see
the Dow is down eight hundred points. That's all to
do with the uncertainty with Trump. The other thing too
that I'll just mentioned because it's very much been on

(22:19):
my radar. Anyone know about this Chilean flame creeper or
I've been walking lately, I've seen that cropping up everywhere.
It's mainly in the south, mainly Canterbury, Ottago South and
it's a plant with a bright red flower and it
appears to be taking over it appears to be unbelievably voracious.

(22:46):
But now it looks like they've managed to get some
the approval of some beetle that could eat it, which
is probably a good thing. They've just approved that. I
don't know how well that works when you bringing beetle,
a leaf feeding beetle. They've got approval to bring in
as a control agent. That's a good thing because I'm
worried it's going to give to my propertyan frame Chilean

(23:08):
flame creeper. Don't know how long it's been in New Zealand.
I think it's probably just been here recently. But if
anyone had in the intel about that, that would be
of interest to me too. Here to midnight, my name
is Marcus. Welcome and also talking about the Kaimi tunnel
caven that happened this day in nineteen seventy killed four people,
twelve people trucked and trapped in there for eighty hours.

(23:30):
I'm just reading about that flame creeper now when it
when it's coming to New Zealand. That doesn't actly it's
in Flower at the moment. That's why I think people
are aware of it. But it's everywhere, particularly in the
South it's one of those things. Once you spot it,
you can't not spot it. And it's some mother's native trees.
It just gets so it's almost got a flower like

(23:51):
the Tacoma that hedge. But if you know it, you'll
know it doesn't look any other native. But yeah, I
don't know when it came into the country, but someone
might have some information on that. Twenty away from nine
head or twelve looking foot to your calls back in
a bit eighteen to eighteen to nine people and lines
free if you want to come through and partake in

(24:12):
the show. As I say, if there is something else
that you want to talk about tonight, good, feel free
to help me out. Oh eight hundred and eighty ten
eighty and nine two nine two de text. There's plenty
of topics out there end of summer, the Kaimi tunnel,
and some of you will have worked on that. I
don't know how many people have been involved. It would

(24:33):
be several hundred. I would have thought took them five years.
But today, in nineteen seventy Febru twenty fourth was the
day that the collapse happened, and it was eighty hours
before those people were risk I don't know if it
was a I think it was probably the days before
a designated mind risk. I don't fully know the results
of that, but yeah, as I could say, as I

(24:55):
said earlier, that's just right in the earlier time frame
of my memory. But certainly remembering that been a big
thing that people were discussing and talking about. Had those
people been saved. Yeah, And now it's that big freight
tunnel that gets those trains through the I think, I think,
I don't know if it's double tracked. I presume it
probably is. But you might have something to say with that.

(25:16):
But bearing in mind, as you'll show, there's something else
you want to talk about that you want to mention,
get in touch. I will keep you updated with any
other news that happens between now and twelve o'clock. So
that's the plan. Stand get in touch. You want to
be part of it. As I say, oh, eight hundred
and eighty ten eighty, and I don't know what's happening
in Napier two. I see they've tried to sack the

(25:37):
dickity me gos. They've only been around for about three months.
Crazy gosh, there's some fragile egos cheap anyway, enough from
me sixteen away from nine and text if you want
to as I say, nine two nine two is the
text number. Love to hear from you, nickets, Marcus, good evening, welcome.

Speaker 7 (25:58):
Oh as soon as just thought i'd suggest to people
they might try tea instead of buying coffee. Although but
he can I just can I expand on that, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (26:11):
Of course, because I can explain on that too.

Speaker 7 (26:15):
It's just just that, for example, I've I've just had
a cup of tea and I started it this morning. Essentially,
what it is, it's an orange peel where they scoop
out the meat of the orange or the mandarin tiny
when they're green. They're plucked on the green and they're
sort of mature about two or three years, the scuffed
with five year old tea. And I just put that

(26:37):
in the bottom of the pot and I brew that
maybe fifteen times a day, cup of orange flavored tea.
Because you know, normally you think of tea as just
that sort of ground up powered crap that you're buying
a supmarket and stuff in the paper tea bag. But
once you get into tea, green tea, orange pea coats,
all various types of tree teas, from different parts of

(26:58):
the world, and tea is much better for you in
terms of a caffeine release, because for coffee. My wife
has says that since I've switched to tea, I'm a
lot less cranky than I used to be.

Speaker 2 (27:12):
Is it an orange that you hollow out?

Speaker 7 (27:17):
No, you buy them like it. You get them from
specialist tea shops, so you can buy them on mine
get them. I forgotten the name of the weft hand,
but that they are tired about the size of the
golf ball, maybe fractionally smaller. And the stuff with a
poor tea which is an age for ment to tea
and you just let it ferment in the bottom of
the cut and you pour it out.

Speaker 2 (27:37):
And what's it called? If I want to google it?

Speaker 7 (27:42):
Oh, I mean you can google orange tea.

Speaker 13 (27:46):
It will come up.

Speaker 2 (27:46):
Well mightn't, okay.

Speaker 7 (27:51):
But you know it's it's not just orange tea, I mean, but.

Speaker 2 (27:54):
The actual oranges that are hollowed out.

Speaker 7 (27:57):
Yeah, and then they're dried.

Speaker 2 (28:01):
It didn't come up when I googled.

Speaker 7 (28:02):
It orange tea China trying it.

Speaker 2 (28:07):
So you've got the the skin, you've just got to
shrink an orange. Have you a tea inside yep.

Speaker 7 (28:14):
And you've got the venamons and the antiopterdants from the orange,
and you've got the fermented least tea.

Speaker 2 (28:24):
You're a visionary. Where'd you get it?

Speaker 7 (28:27):
Well, here we are poor ripened. You get it. I
mean there are various places around the world you can
get it. Where did you get it? There's actually a
Chinese tea shop in South Apel. I think it's tang Kun. Tangkun.

(28:48):
It's a China you know in Auckland you don't, but
there's like a Chinese chinatown in sort of South more West, Auckland.
I forgot the moment. Somebody will know it. But you
can get it in there, but you can get it online.
It's poor tea, it's poor ripe from tea and the Yeah,

(29:14):
but t you and.

Speaker 2 (29:16):
You just said the same orange in the bottom of
your pot all day and I just read the whole time.
It slightly kind of loses its flavor. Is that right?

Speaker 7 (29:23):
It does eventually? Yeah, you can prove it about fifteen times.
But you know, but I'm really I mean, that's only
one example, but there were so many variations. I mean,
you could buy you could buy the peel on its
own and just put a bit of feeling as.

Speaker 2 (29:37):
Much lucky wife, Are you lucky wife for you being
less cranky?

Speaker 7 (29:43):
Though?

Speaker 14 (29:43):
Way?

Speaker 7 (29:44):
Yeah, well you know, I mean, if you drink coffee,
you get a sudden hit that's like a wallot of caffeine,
whereas if you drink tea, there's kind of less caffeine
in it, but it's sort of more of a slow release.

Speaker 2 (29:56):
Brilliant, slow burning. Nice to hear from you, nine away
from nine eight or midnight nine to nine lines for
if you want to talk before the break. Hello, June,
this is Marcus. Good evening.

Speaker 15 (30:06):
Hi Marcus, how are you good?

Speaker 2 (30:08):
Thank you?

Speaker 16 (30:08):
Jane good.

Speaker 15 (30:09):
Hey, the guy was talking about the orange tea. It's
called orange pico.

Speaker 2 (30:14):
No, these ones were actually this is not loosely these
are actually this was actually tea stuff. Yeah, this is
stuffed into oranges.

Speaker 15 (30:23):
No, I don't know what he talked me because we
where we come from India, we've always had orange picos
like a flavor. It actually doesn't have an orange flavor.
It's just a name really, but that's what it is,
called orange pico. And there's a shop in Saint Luke's
Tea shop. I bought it from there. A long time ago.
It's very expensive, so that's what it is called. Maybe

(30:45):
that's what he was. I don't know, tea or orange.
I don't know. It doesn't make sense to us to me, Okay.

Speaker 2 (30:51):
We'll work it out. But I think I think literally,
I think there, yeah, that's what I thought. That's yeah,
I know, I think that came through something clearly that
we hadn't heard of before. Actually Orange is stuffed with tea.
His wife says, is this cranky kind always struck me
as slightly cranky. Still, so that's great. He must be
really cranky. Vaughn, it's Marcus. Good evening.

Speaker 7 (31:11):
How are you good?

Speaker 2 (31:11):
Thank you, Vaughan.

Speaker 7 (31:14):
The Yeah, the corm Or Tunnel, Yeah, she's a pretty
interesting tunnel. They know it's the longest undented tunnel in
the Southern Hemisphere or something like that.

Speaker 17 (31:22):
Is.

Speaker 2 (31:23):
So what does that mean. It means it's still you
can still passenger trains must have gone through there, mustn't they.

Speaker 18 (31:30):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (31:30):
Yeah, apparently the local drivers have to have a special
certification to go through that sort of thing though, So
I don't think it matters per sees and what's going
through passenger or goods something, But it's just they're got
to be aware of it, I suppose, and hold their breck.

Speaker 2 (31:46):
Yeah, I guess. So they've got to be aware of
they've got to lead a riscue or something. I guess
they've got to get They've probably got guest bottles of
oxygen bottles and things, I think, have they, or masks
and stuff.

Speaker 6 (31:55):
Yea.

Speaker 17 (31:56):
No.

Speaker 7 (31:57):
The funeral a little while ago with a guy that
he was one of the conquerors in that tunnel. You know,
I heard it when you go to funerals and your
hearing the eulogy and Jesus been interesting to talk to
him about.

Speaker 2 (32:08):
That's you. You spot on Vorn because you're here. I
think they've never meant you think cheapest you got no
more chance to talk to them about it.

Speaker 17 (32:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (32:16):
So he worked quite a while on the tunnel there
and the conquering that sort of thing, so it was
quite into and talked to him about him.

Speaker 2 (32:22):
So it's the whole thing, lined must be.

Speaker 11 (32:25):
Ye're not really sure. I don't call it.

Speaker 7 (32:27):
Go through it one day when they do the odd excusion,
I think so did to be interesting, you can sort of.
I've stopped on the road because there's the the DC
three Memorial just quite close that brook, so that all
through there. So I went through a little while ago
and had had a look at that. So easy to
miss but worth it if you're a geek, I suppose.

Speaker 2 (32:47):
Yeah, I just understood. I can't remember if I've been
through it or not. I either went to it and
had to get out of the train there hadn't done
the right doing a rail docor hadn't done the right thing.
But I still can't quite remember if I went through
it or not. So yeah, you want do you want
to do? You want to rechange the calendar too?

Speaker 7 (33:03):
Well, it's an interesting thing about the calendar. So every
four years, what do we do with our calendar? We
have a leaked yere? Right? Yes, yeah, so that's gold
to be that said that it takes the sun then
three hundred and sixty five and a quarter days to
go around Earth, go around the sun or whatever.

Speaker 8 (33:19):
You know.

Speaker 7 (33:20):
So when we talk about our seasons are changing, you
know technically they should shouldn't they because it's our calendar
ratchets back to keep things in line, but mother nature
doesn't reach it back the quarter of a day every year, year,
every day, every four years, so why you know, every
every tea. Was it every boy forty years this day
and every sort of forty years it's ten days. And

(33:43):
you know, how does that work with two thousand nine
years into our calendar, aren't we? So why is summer
still summer and winter still winter?

Speaker 2 (33:51):
Because they've got it worked. They've got the length of
the circuit worked out perfectly, haven't they.

Speaker 7 (33:58):
Well, yeah, with our calendar, you know, ratchets back every year,
every four years, it reaches back today.

Speaker 2 (34:04):
That's what the that's what that's why to keep it
all legit? Yeah of them, no, no, no, no, no,
well otherwise otherwise the whole thing that otherwise we we'd
be having winter in summer cheap as worn. I can't
be bothering around trying to think about that tonight. But yeah, no,
it's just that's that's it all. But it all balances

(34:25):
quite well, I think. Gosh, that stuff we did it
at school, if we could still remember it. My mother
used to infuse orange peel on the cold range in
order to make a tea concoction. Chinatown Dominion ride around
Eden Tobou Moral was driving from Dunedin into Cargot two pm.
We saw six police cars with red and blue fleshing
lights heading out of our clue. The heading north by

(34:46):
the time we had driven ten k's along the old
coach road would send eleven cars heading north, all in
fleshing lights. I wonder if information on what has happened, well,
I think was there a bad excellent today? I can't.
I think there might have been a hit and run
that the police in South Donina. That's what it might
have been. What it was, No, that might be histerical.

(35:08):
Oh no, no, I don't know what they would have.
That's a lot of police cars. I can't anything that
would have said about that oline. But no, No, it's
always frustrating when you see things happening. You can't we
get where they're all going, and you can't correlate that
with the news stories and what to do about that. However,
hurdle twelve, let's keep it going. I was just trying

(35:30):
to unpick that call before the news. I think what
he was saying is the seasons aren't getting warmer, it's
just the calendar getting out of sync because of the
leap Day. I think the reason we have the leap
day is to get the calendar beck and sync. I
think it takes three out and sixty five and a

(35:50):
quarter days to go around the sun. That's where, and
it's almost exact. That's the weird thing. So yeah, that's
why it's surprising. But that's the that's the that's the
plan anyway, texts chen p Citrus stuff with purity. A
car has hit a house in helens Borough. Not sure

(36:11):
about that many police cars though, but the picture had
the embulence in the town center. I have a Waikato
Times front page judging on the Kaimi tunnel collapse. My
late husband Don Grant features the driller to get the
first hold down to the trap tunnelers. I remember it well, Margaret.
Thank you for that, Margaret. So we are talking about

(36:33):
the anniversary. We're talk about the Kaimi tunnel collapse this
day in nineteen seventy four people died. They were trapped
with eight others and they're trapped for eighty hours. We're
also talking about the guy with the cafe in Wellington.
He said the price of coffee will go to ten
dollars fifty. He said, already they're losing money making coffee.

(36:54):
They make it on the other stuff. Next said people
have to switch to tea. But I think you go
to a cafe, t seems to be not quite. You
don't get the rigmarole with tea. You don't get the
he make tea at home? It requires you just need
a kettle to make tea. To make coffee, you need
a grinder and a machine that will put water through

(37:16):
the beans at high pressure, and a milk energizer that
esus it up. That's the thing. There's stuff you can't
do at home. I made myself clear so anyway, but look,
if you want to join the discussion. Interesting teas is
kind of the best thing so far, Like those one
stuffed into an orange. That's kind of the plan. And

(37:36):
the Kaimi tunnel. And why would anyone care about Andrew
becoming the head of state because the chances are so minuscule,
and bearing in mind, before long more royals will be
coming on tap, He's never going to be closer, like
within five years George will have kids and whatever. It'll
probably ninth and tenth And I don't know which the
way it goes, well, how are no I can't work

(37:58):
out who's going to come in between him. But at
the moment I've got it all worked out. It goes William, Charlotte, George, Louis, Harry, Lillabeth,
then the other one, then Andrew. I think he's eighth.
The one thing I enjoy about the royals of the
lines of succession. So yes, as you can see, it's
a bit of everything, and I'm throwing it all at
you people if you want to talk about these it's

(38:19):
anything but dogs tonight. That's the plan. And if you
have breaking news where you are, that's all good. It's
all good. It's all all good. And the demise of
the Mad Butcher that a needen one has now gone.
It was in the cargo and that's gone. Now that
the needed one has gone, there aren't many left. It
was a franchise. I don't know. I don't know whether

(38:39):
the franchise has been good or bad. But it's not
the Mad Butcher that's involved in the moment. Interesting guy.
I think that the story about the Mad Butcher was
a kind of was one of those guys. I think
a lot of his success of the roll out of
the Mad Butchers was I think based on radio advertising.
One of those great stories, great success stories of the
power of radio advertising. Eleven past nine. As I say,

(39:01):
if there is other stuff you want to talk about,
then be my guest. Quite literally, someone said, tech on tree,
this is the orange tea. The caller was talking about
green orange peel PR sixty eight dollars. So they look
like almost they look like the oranges have almost gone black,

(39:23):
and the tea's in the middle of them. It appears
to be a Chinese thing.

Speaker 19 (39:27):
Oh.

Speaker 2 (39:27):
There was also some discussion in the last hour about
the guy said, people aren't drinking coffee anymore. They are
drinking banana bread lattes. I don't know what that is.
So I've already asked about that. And Corene Chicken. Why
is Corene chicken from Chicken different from KFC? Don't know
the answer that either. Too many questions for me. But

(39:48):
looking forward to what you want to jumping on about tonight.
As I say here till twelve o'clock, he might be
out there doing something interesting. I'll be curious now what
that is. You might be at out barbecuing. It seems
like it might be a nice end to summer tonight.
That's my plan. Well it's not my plan. I'm at work,
but that's thoughts on what people might be doing. I

(40:08):
can tell you too. The t twenty World Cup is
on you through to the Super eight stage. We will
face Sri Lanka on Thursday. That's tomorrow. It's two thirty
is it tomorrow? Like in five hours Dan Friday morning
with two thirty Friday morning. And there will be a
lunar eclipse next Tuesday, the only one for twenty twenty six.

(40:31):
And that's about all I've got for you in our people.
But do get in touch if you want to talk
on air. Oh eight hundred and eighty ten eighty and
nine two nine to text you on a partake. If
there is something different that you've got you want to
talk about, have you say on I can tell you
that they've just started filming Survivor series fifty one of

(40:52):
the great games.

Speaker 5 (40:53):
Allo.

Speaker 2 (40:53):
I wouldn't say it's as good as traitors got a
bit say me, say me towards the end. That was
my take on. It was never quite as good as
when rich won, when he took off all his clothes
and freaked everyone out. Richard Hatch, this is Marcus. Well, Bob,
it's Marcus. Good evening, now, why are you?

Speaker 11 (41:10):
I just thought i'd give you an update. I met
Runa Tunafar ready to catch those salmon tomorrow And apparently
the baits you use for something called chunky cheese. Now
you would think it was cheese, but it's not. It's
a particular fish bait. They used it for the salmon.

Speaker 20 (41:26):
What's it called chunky cheese like cheese?

Speaker 18 (41:29):
C h.

Speaker 6 (41:32):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (41:33):
Where do you get it?

Speaker 11 (41:34):
I got mine at Hennison's Blenham. Yeah, And I had
been using all the wrong gear. I looked way too
big that I had. And the line was you said,
the fish will see the line. I thought, well, what
difference does that make? Apparently, so anyway, they've set me

(41:54):
up with all the right stuff. So I'm eagerly ready
to report a salmon tomorrow night.

Speaker 2 (42:00):
What's the backstory with salmon? It's different from they're coming
from the sea? Do they they're spawning?

Speaker 11 (42:05):
Are they these ones here? They've got a whole lot
of salmon farms up there. Oh, and they escape and
the escape and but because they fit on fish colors,
they're very very flighty about what else they eat. But
they're quite nice. Smoke, I've got a smoker, and everything
is this is this?

Speaker 2 (42:24):
Is this a bucketless thing for you?

Speaker 11 (42:26):
Oh, I've done it once before, but I was bloody
hopeless because I didn't I didn't do any research. I
just went as usual.

Speaker 2 (42:32):
And that's what I like about you. You're not one
that you're not an obsessive sort of research, so you're
not on the internet the whole time. And just give
it a go.

Speaker 11 (42:41):
Just give it a go, Marcus. But I'll tell you what, mate.
The people on the road any wonder. There's so many
road excidents I was coming into, coming through twice all.

Speaker 2 (42:50):
Around, terrible, terrible from the middle of the road, Marcus.

Speaker 11 (42:53):
I couldn't go around them. I couldn't go one way,
I couldn't go the other way. They sat there for
a couple of minutes. Well they decided whether they should go.

Speaker 4 (42:59):
Into toys or not.

Speaker 2 (43:00):
Idiots. I thought, you idiots, idiots.

Speaker 11 (43:04):
But anyway, I won't boy with no.

Speaker 2 (43:06):
No, I'm ready to be poored, Bob. I don't reckon.
You've got a very good concentration span, have you. How
long will you give it?

Speaker 11 (43:14):
Oh, I'll give a five minute.

Speaker 2 (43:17):
Shif they might or not, would you put down ground
bait or does the chunky cheese kind of have a
scent that they'll attract them?

Speaker 17 (43:27):
Well?

Speaker 5 (43:27):
Presuming so?

Speaker 11 (43:28):
So the fish shop man either wanted to sell me
a whole of a new gear or it does. Yeah,
but then I'm not known for my patients. It's not
one thing that I've known.

Speaker 2 (43:38):
That's why I don't think fishing's for you. I thought
you'd be better off on the Pokey's or something or
that if you tried the tab.

Speaker 11 (43:44):
No, no keeping away from all them. They eat your
money up too quickly.

Speaker 2 (43:48):
Okay, we'll be in touched Bob.

Speaker 17 (43:50):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (43:50):
By the way. On the holidays, I didn't get to
add a tokey where they have this. I went to
see the eels, which were quite good. But there's an
interesting looking salmon, kind of nice stream. That's the famous
place where they feed the eels for years and years
and years. We've talked about that on air a great deal.
So I thought was keen to get up there and
have a look at that. And there it was quite
interesting being catches salmon. But they're just all there in

(44:11):
a pond. It looked slightly it's not a Bob's after Hello, Mark,
this is Marcus. Welcome.

Speaker 16 (44:18):
You know, Marcus, you asked a question. Put it out
there a few weeks ago for people to ask about
things that they didn't know something along those lines. So
when I was listening to that the callers that evening,
I said to myself, there's something I've been wanting to
ask and know about for years and years and years,
and I could google it, but that just sort of

(44:39):
defeats the purpose.

Speaker 9 (44:40):
I think.

Speaker 2 (44:40):
I asked why they called musketeers. It was quite straightforward.
It was because they had muskets. I felt stupid for
asking that question, but anyway, I'm all right about that
because others didn't know. So that's that's what we go.

Speaker 16 (44:49):
Yeah, that was the evening. So here's my question. There's
actually two part. It's actually the two questions. First, when
trucks you see trucks going along, what is the story
with the truck that had the trucks that have the
back wheels up that aren't touching the ground.

Speaker 5 (45:08):
How do they go up?

Speaker 16 (45:09):
When do they come down? What's the story behind it.
I don't understand anything to do with it. I'm like,
what's going on here with the truck? And I've been
looking at it since I was a kid. That's fifty years.

Speaker 2 (45:22):
What are we talking?

Speaker 16 (45:23):
When you see often with logging trucks, it's often logging trucks,
or used to see it with stock trucks. The back wheels,
so you've got like the two sets of two at
the back, so the eight wheels, and you'll have two
of them closest to the like the differential axle point

(45:48):
that are up in the air. They're not touching the tarmac,
they aren't touching the tar seal, and they go up
and they come down because you see them later on
and they're like, oh, it's down. How do they do
this on the trailer? I don't understand. Hopefully a truck
you can explain to us what's going on there?

Speaker 5 (46:07):
Do you understand?

Speaker 16 (46:07):
Did you get what I'm talking about?

Speaker 5 (46:09):
I don't think you do.

Speaker 2 (46:09):
You're not talking about when they take the trailer, they
put the trailer on, double it up on top.

Speaker 16 (46:14):
No, well, yeah, that's part of it. That was going
to be my second part.

Speaker 4 (46:18):
How do they double up?

Speaker 2 (46:19):
But you're not talking about the double up. You're talking
about something about.

Speaker 5 (46:23):
Well, when they are doubled up.

Speaker 16 (46:24):
That's when I saw it last the last week, I
saw a truck that was doubled up.

Speaker 2 (46:28):
You're talking about wheels that don't actually hit the ground, right,
Is that right?

Speaker 3 (46:32):
Yeah?

Speaker 16 (46:32):
Yeah, they seem to be up in there, but obviously
they know.

Speaker 2 (46:37):
I feel like an idiot, Mark, because I've never noticed that.

Speaker 9 (46:40):
You don't.

Speaker 2 (46:42):
I got my eyes on the rock. I've got my
eyes on their own.

Speaker 16 (46:47):
I'm I'm looking. Ah, So I guess I'm a defensive driver.

Speaker 9 (46:51):
I try and be a driver anyway.

Speaker 2 (46:53):
So they how many wheels have they got to go?
About eight on each side, and two of them there's
two sets are up.

Speaker 5 (46:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 16 (46:59):
Yeah, Well so you've got like imagine just looking at
the side of a truck. You've got the two at
the front and let's just say two at the back
right of what which we know they're made up of
two seats of two but the second to last seats,
so one at the front loving the last last seat
aren't touching the ground?

Speaker 2 (47:19):
And how do they do four? And how do they
do it?

Speaker 8 (47:22):
Yeah?

Speaker 16 (47:23):
No idea, what's going on?

Speaker 2 (47:25):
It's good. It's a good question, Mark, and I think
we'll probably get people like this is strong. It might
be asking. It might be ask a truck ee Tuesday.
I always want to know why trucks when they park
while they've got the why they have the trays up?
You even notice that too, when they park Mark, they
parked with the trays up.

Speaker 16 (47:43):
Ah, well, yeah, they're elevated with the thing, so that
water doesn't for.

Speaker 2 (47:47):
Low everyone there's that's that's stopped anyone cooling, hasn't it.

Speaker 16 (47:51):
Well, that's just sort of common sense that they're rusty
out there, Margus.

Speaker 2 (48:00):
I was dealing in common sense.

Speaker 4 (48:01):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (48:01):
Twenty one past nine, twenty four past nine, Dean, it's Marcus.
Good evening.

Speaker 9 (48:08):
Yeah, Hey, to answer that, guys, christ it's pretty simple.
Which call. It's known as a lazy axle. So what happens,
it's it's weight related. So when wake, if if you
want to take extra weight, weight comes on and the
wheels come down and then when the weight comes off,
they come back up again, which probably saves life on

(48:29):
tires and stuff as well. So it's all to do
with wait, when you take on extra weight, and it's
known as a lazy axel.

Speaker 2 (48:36):
Brilliant appreciate that, Dean Pree of Marcus. Welcome, Hi, how
you doing good?

Speaker 4 (48:43):
Well?

Speaker 7 (48:44):
The next court the last caller is just explain what
I was going to say. So, yeah, it's a lazy axel?

Speaker 2 (48:51):
How many? How many trucks have them?

Speaker 7 (48:55):
A lot most of the great trucks, right container truck.

Speaker 3 (49:00):
So if they.

Speaker 7 (49:04):
Are carrying of forty you know, all the axles down.
But if they carrying a twenty footer they won't need
that last X all you seek still well, so.

Speaker 2 (49:15):
Do they need to push a button to deactivate or
just the lack of weight means it retracts?

Speaker 7 (49:20):
I mud say it has to bring it down.

Speaker 2 (49:25):
Yeah, I'll find out more about this. Appreciate that, Trev.
Thank you. There's a couple of answers for anyone else.
Got anything to say about that? Good? Oh, good work
people always good. Mark with that voice comes through with authority.
He's got something interesting to say. The lifted exors refugal
is a lazy ex al thew and you mentally operate
and load when the truck is loaded to conplay with

(49:45):
the road user restrictions when running empty, they lifted and
save on wear and tear. Marcus, since your topic is food,
does he want to make their own sushi? And is
it economically worth it? Or is it like buttered chicken?
Uber eats his cheaper? Wow, that's that raw fish people talk?

(50:06):
But isn't it reripped? And see we are all right
until Marcus, they're an earbig exorder is controlled by the
weight up when empty, down when loaded. It just saves rubber.
Hydraulics lift up the wheels and stop them from wearing out.
We're not in use and can you make your own
sushi cheaper? You just need one of those mets, like
an old blind. That's not like an old blind, those
old string blind mechtick blinds used to get I think

(50:29):
the keys. The rice needs something else on the rice
being touched by him as Marcus Welcome, Good evening, Greg,
welcome to Marcus.

Speaker 7 (50:39):
Good Gregg yourself, Yeah, good, Hey, funnily enough on the
truck he just turned on and you start talking about
tracking questions. That's hard, shop mate. I'm the first old
e left Exel. Some of the trucks have it from
maneuverability as well, and it makes a big difference when

(50:59):
you're trying to trailer into a shocking place, which leads
to your second question about what the logging trucks do it.
I would say probably ninety percent of logging skid sites.
You can't tow a trailer and then turn around at.

Speaker 12 (51:14):
The other end.

Speaker 7 (51:14):
You've got to turn around and then they lift the
trailer off with a digger or loader and put it
down and load it up and you drive here. Oh,
it's also done so that you have traction to get in.
Some of the old logging skid roads are very steep
and you just don't have attraction if you've got no

(51:36):
trailer on, because your track's empty obviously. And you get
in there, you spin around, you back up and old mate,
and the digger lifts your trailer off, you hook her up,
you loader up and you drive here. Does that make
sense when.

Speaker 2 (51:51):
He says he? When he says he, the guy you
make where the trailer takes the where the digger takes
the trailer off, he takes it off the back and
then takes it down to where the trees go on it. Yep,
So logs pulling.

Speaker 7 (52:04):
Too, you're pulling so in the forest if you like,
you have what is a skid site where they have
all the logs laid out ready to put on the
trucks copy and you'll you'll pull up there, you'll get
the go ahead, you'll back in and the go and
the loader or the digger or the big grapple, he'll
pick up a chain on the back of the logging trailer,

(52:26):
pick it up and swing it down, and you'll swing
the drawbar around and hook her all up and she's
all taking you.

Speaker 11 (52:34):
Very ready to go.

Speaker 2 (52:36):
Brilliant, Greg, it's good explanation. I appreciate that. Thank you
well explained, and Mark, I hope you appreciate that. Keep
you coming through, guys, if you've got something else to say.
This was the thing about logging. We don't forget to
see what's happening at the logging at the coal face,
do we? Someone said, pivot excel system. Great, Marcus, the
go the truck questions? Is common sense on the last question.

(52:58):
But couldn't guess that the second set of wheels touched
down when the loads of over a certain level. I'm
not a truck of but I'm using common sense. Well,
don't brag. That's the good thing of the people. Can't
admit their uncertainties and their achilles heels. We've all got
achilles heels when it comes to common sense. There's great
powers of observation. Good on midnights that manas Marcus good

(53:18):
evening another aircraft carriers joined the military build up against
Iran was supposed to be last weekend, the old showdown,
But who knows? I reckon. You can tell everyone in
Washington start to doing pizza and going to the war room.
I think that's one of the indicators they look towards.
But yes, head on midnight manas Marcus Good Evening. Oh

(53:38):
eight hundred and eighty ten eighty and ta and anything else. Graham,
this is Marcus Good Evening.

Speaker 18 (53:47):
Oh ho, Marcus. I thought you'd know a bit more
about the car my tunnel, being the enthusiast you are.

Speaker 9 (53:54):
Oh.

Speaker 2 (53:54):
Look, what I don't know about is the way that
the news broke in nineteen seventy. That's what I'm really
interested about, because it's kind of at the beginning of
my memory time when that happened.

Speaker 18 (54:05):
Yeah, I remember pretty clearly. I was lucky enough I
come back from Oz and I was offered job in
the tunnel. Yes, And I said, well, I don't know
about that. I'm pretty claustrophobic. Yes, So they said, we'll
come on out and we'll take you to the face.

(54:27):
And so they took me right into the head of
the what they call the Java tunneling machine. And that
tunneling machine is still sitting on the other side, on
the matamatic side today. They never sold it.

Speaker 13 (54:46):
And the tunnel.

Speaker 18 (54:49):
It was the very first I couldn't believe this pink
or red line going away into the tunnel, and it
was the first of the lasers. Wow, and where they
were using a layer for measuring you know, their direction.

(55:12):
But it was a phenomenal experience and an answer to
your question or someone's query about passengers, I've been through it.
I did a school fundraiser from the kids and we
got the most money we ever made school fundraiser, and

(55:33):
I rented or hired with another school a passenger train,
and all the grandparents came and everything we went through
to match about it.

Speaker 2 (55:45):
Did you work on the tunnel gram in the end?

Speaker 3 (55:48):
No, No, I didn't.

Speaker 6 (55:50):
It was too much.

Speaker 11 (55:52):
I wouldn't have been able to hand it.

Speaker 2 (55:54):
Do you remember any details of the collapse?

Speaker 18 (55:57):
All I remember was that they were trying to come
in from a couple of separate angles from up top.

Speaker 2 (56:06):
It could be a long way to board. It would
be a long way to boil down though, wouldn't it.

Speaker 18 (56:10):
Oh yeah, that's why it took such a long time.

Speaker 2 (56:13):
Okay, So they didn't everyday they didn't come. They didn't
come in from the from the portal. They came down
from above, did they?

Speaker 18 (56:22):
Yeah, I'm pretty sure. I'm almost one hundred percent sure
they came down from up top.

Speaker 5 (56:28):
Yep.

Speaker 2 (56:29):
You didn't even see any TV shows on the fiftieth
anniversary or something because it was Yeah, I do so
you were right. There was always they were tripped there
for eighty hours. It would have become a huge news story.

Speaker 18 (56:40):
Oh well, it's daily. Yeah, it was saying. And I
know in the back of my mind, I seem to
remember they tried coming in from two approaches.

Speaker 2 (56:51):
And I believe, I don't know, I don't know how
to say this in an elegant way, but I believe
that I don't believe. I don't know this. But the
four people that died, they died in the collapse, did
they They weren't people that died, because I think to
take that that that makes you feel better about that.

Speaker 18 (57:06):
Yeah, yeah, no, they were.

Speaker 6 (57:08):
They died in the clips.

Speaker 18 (57:10):
But in regards to I heard run guy mentioned it's
the longest tunnel that can't breathe, so to speak. When
we went up to a boat race meeting, we leased
a railcar same thing. It was a fund raisingly and

(57:33):
we got held up on the tower on the side
for twenty minutes.

Speaker 2 (57:37):
Oh well they did the extraction.

Speaker 18 (57:39):
Yeah, we were told of freight train and coming through
and that we had to wait twenty minutes for the
air to clear for the tunnel to clear.

Speaker 6 (57:48):
Yeah.

Speaker 9 (57:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (57:49):
And they did the Tier tunnel too. They close the
doors and they have some sort of evacuation of the
of the air from within it.

Speaker 18 (57:58):
Yes, but they did have a railcar service from Auckland
to Tower for quite sometimes.

Speaker 2 (58:06):
I've only stopped about when it stopped at nineteen ninety
or maybe eighty five. I would have stopped aout nineteen
nothing year around this. Crazy to think that they had
to stop that because it seemed like it would be
quite well used.

Speaker 18 (58:17):
Yeahh so that's the little bit I know about the
card By tunnel.

Speaker 2 (58:22):
Yeah. Are you a teacher, Graham?

Speaker 18 (58:25):
No, No, far from it is good.

Speaker 2 (58:28):
It is good as your fundraisers, Oh we did, yeah.

Speaker 18 (58:32):
No, then it was on the committee in the school
at the time.

Speaker 2 (58:35):
You sound like you'd sound like you were a guy
that really excels on a committee. Like the committee guy
is like a no nonsense You're like a no nonsense
get thing done guy.

Speaker 8 (58:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 18 (58:46):
Yeah, don't like the fluffing area.

Speaker 2 (58:49):
I think I think your details about the boring machine
might be slightly dated.

Speaker 18 (58:55):
Dated. Yeah, well the Java machine.

Speaker 2 (58:58):
Apparently it was cut up twenty years ago because it
was becoming a safety hazard.

Speaker 8 (59:03):
Oh was it?

Speaker 4 (59:04):
Yeah?

Speaker 18 (59:05):
All right though it's probably the last time I went
through this exactly.

Speaker 2 (59:10):
So you're seeing something is everything, isn't it? I like that, Graham,
Thank you. Twenty five to ten Marcus I was walking
working up at Mount Cock and eighty eight. Used to
go down to Techa pal Canal on my night's off,
called a twenty three pound rainbow hen one night she
was mounted by the overall brothers and Tim who now
on the Chammy Barrett the Mount Cock. Wow, Marcus. I

(59:35):
used to in a cafe, so have a single group
coffee machine. It's about a dollar per coffee. I just
don't go to a cafe anything more than four to
fifty as a ripoff, just like a ten cent tea
bag and paying three dollars fifty. Mark said. My tandem
car trying to set up so I can wind the
back set of wheels up off the ground by one
fifty millimeters, which makes it way easier to toe, turn

(59:56):
back and move around by hand when it's empty or
carrying a light load of furniture whatever saves tire where too,
I only drop them down with heavy loads. So there
you go, Mark, he's got a tenem trailer. That's he
can transition which is good twenty three to ten good evening.
And this is Marcus welcome.

Speaker 21 (01:00:16):
Thinking that that's high. I can add a little bit
more to the Kaimi tunnel. I was working on a
farm in Matametter at the time, and I remember that
they had this big laser that to the the hill.
The Wahara and areas were protesting because they had been
stolen land and it was an ancient cemetery nearby. But

(01:00:40):
as they drilled in, they found that they were one
degree off, so they had to retract and start again.
And that's when they started in another place. Wow, and
re surveyed it and got it right.

Speaker 2 (01:00:54):
Did the it seems like MDA mutter is quite a big.
Did the workers stay there? Was that the base for it?

Speaker 21 (01:01:00):
Yeah, I'm not too sure, but yeah, that they moved
the laser to another place. It was huge, which was
like a big message drill drilling into the side of
this rocky hill.

Speaker 2 (01:01:11):
Yeah, there was no mean what did they do with
all the dirt that the rock that came out the overburden.

Speaker 21 (01:01:16):
Well they were they were planing to track it away too,
and don't put it in another place to secure roads
and things like.

Speaker 2 (01:01:26):
Okay, well looking to moorro of that. Thank you Anne, Brian,
good evening.

Speaker 17 (01:01:30):
Good evening, Marcus. How are you you good?

Speaker 2 (01:01:33):
Brian?

Speaker 17 (01:01:34):
I spent thirty two years for a rail. I would
prevent tunnel many many times. I did test trains on
and everything, and I even biked for it.

Speaker 2 (01:01:44):
No, hang on, Brian, I just wanted, because I'm going
to lose this. Did you put out riggers on your
bike or how did you approach that? Or did you
before did your bike on it? Before the rails went down?

Speaker 17 (01:01:58):
What happened was when they opened their tunnel and seventy
eight I went to the opening and direct when they
opened the tunnel that'd been opened probably not even twelve months,
and there was Telethon remember then, yes, yep, and ida

(01:02:19):
that work? And I said to the guys, had a
few mates, well, I had a lot of mates from
the roy And I said, if few mates, what are
we going to do for Telethon? And none of us
thought of anything, and all of a sudden, I thought
of me, I thought of I asked Ring Wasington and
get the engineer's approval to see if we can ride

(01:02:41):
through the tunnel and anyway. They said they'd get back
to me, and they sent me some correspondents and said yes,
that would be open. Because we were doing it for Telethon.
I mestered up six guys who were keen to do it,
pussed myself and we did it. And there was a

(01:03:03):
while it was getting built a guide bite through, but
he never came back. We went through and came back and.

Speaker 2 (01:03:14):
All right, hang on, Brian, did you have special four
wheel bikes without riggers?

Speaker 17 (01:03:20):
It's just ordinary bikes. We rode along the outside of
the leavers and we could ride on the top of
the three vers anyway because it's all concrete and.

Speaker 2 (01:03:29):
There good point okay, wow.

Speaker 17 (01:03:31):
Yeah, and we bike through it. We they resettled the
train for us and everything, and we went over. This
was I think it was a Saturday. It was a Saturday.
We went over on the Friday night, stopped in those

(01:03:52):
workmen's workshops for whatever they had those buildings, and kempt
down on bloody threemen bags and it was bland and
bloody gale that night, and we've got a few old
row so I took over. I got them off the
railways through and we took over, and we let a
fire and the bloody spags were blown everywhere around the place.

(01:04:16):
But anyway, what happened was we went through the tunnel.
They rescheduled all the trains. They ritually stopped the trains
to let us go through, which was great. And anyway,
we had to tell them when we came out, they're
back into the side of the tunnel. Before we entered

(01:04:38):
the tunnel from the road bridge to the tunnel was
called Hemopo because the joker hammer Poe climbed through the pipes.
They put in big pipes in the ground and they
slap and got the guys out. And he climbed through
and got the guys out.

Speaker 6 (01:04:59):
He was the hero.

Speaker 17 (01:05:00):
It was the joker hammer Poe. And anyway, that was
all right. That tunnel was five and three quarters miles long.
It's the longest one in the country. The Room Attackers
says five and now five and a half miles long,
the Room Attackers farther than a quarter and the Tura

(01:05:22):
tunnels five. I've been through all those tunnels a whole lot,
and anyway, we did test trains on there. We took
the engines the old Dah square nose locomotives that'd been
over to Australia and be refitted out and rebuilt, and

(01:05:44):
we had some of them on. We had four I
think we had one in the two in the front
and two at the back and one special train. We
took one train we took through within test train. They
loaded it up to the hill and told the drivers
to give us the full go and we went through

(01:06:09):
and he gave it the full go, and I picked
up a couple of passenger people that came up to
have a look and asked him what he'd like to
ride in the van with me, because the van was
on the front of the train. And we went through
there and they were into the tunnel because it's got
a bit of a sharp end into the tunnel. And
the guy that was came with me on that train trip,

(01:06:32):
he said to me, what happened is that the wagons
come off because they were rolling they made the does
and they've got we got through the tunnel and he said,
what happened if they came off? I said that just
postponing the clothes and in a couple of days don't
the fed But they never come off.

Speaker 15 (01:06:53):
You know.

Speaker 17 (01:06:53):
Shoot that the engineers know what the bloody did and
we had d X on it and I think we
had about details and done. I can't remember the tone
of joban it was a breag Brady train and all
I hate to ask a lady what they do with
a rubber share of the tunnel that built the foundation

(01:07:17):
for the track over the towards the road and also
further towards or Row. They used it for him.

Speaker 14 (01:07:26):
Okay, imagine that royal beat.

Speaker 2 (01:07:29):
Yeah, nice to talk to. Yeah, Murray Hemopa was the
guy who got the George Medal for his bravery for
helping rescue people gallantry Mary Hemipal of Mutter Mutter. That's
the guy that the that the Yeah, nice to talk to, Brian,
thank you for that. Thirteen to ten. By the way, too,
they haven't found that news reader's mother in America. That's
gone on for a long time and is a mystery,

(01:07:50):
isn't it. It looks like Punch the monkey's doing a
bit better. This is the abandoned monkey that's become a
big news story. He's now adopted started hugging some of
the other monkeys. It's been a big story punch the monkey.
It's kind of a visual story that one that was
the monkey that was given a soft toy because they
didn't bond with his mother. A recent video shows turning

(01:08:12):
things around. He was given a hug by one monkey
and was seeing grooming others, a key part of macaque socialization. Wow,
pretty cute looking monkey to macaque lines free. If you
want to partake people, trucks and trains and corene chicken.
I have got core samples and lots of memorabilia from

(01:08:33):
the Kaimi Tunnel Marcus. We brought amazing pis of cafe
and coffee and paint quite a bit. They wanted fifty
cents for the source. At least it wasn't night and
day or it's two dollars. I stopped going there. If
you want to strove incredible manual engineering and surveying, you
can't go past the Rorimu spiral. Yeah, but what's the point?
Back and forward and round and round. Goodness me at home,

(01:08:56):
I have a Rorimu spiral compass that the tourists could
hire that showed them where they were during time through
the spiral. Yeah, I don't know what year they would
have been. It's probably something from the nineteen thirties, maybe
maybe fifties. It's not a great compass. It's not supposed

(01:09:18):
to be nine to ten, seven to nine. Wilson, this
is Marcus. Welcome.

Speaker 10 (01:09:23):
Yeah, Marcus, that cimit punnel. I'm late to believe from
a guy I worked with back in the seventies that
it was Richardson Well Drilling in Parison North had a
machine and they drilled in from the side. Oh and

(01:09:47):
the guy I work with, he had a police escort
apparently to get to up there as quick as possible
from Parmison North.

Speaker 2 (01:09:58):
How far from the portal? So they tell you wouldn't know.

Speaker 14 (01:10:01):
Would you.

Speaker 10 (01:10:02):
I wouldn't have a clue mat the But the thing
was they didn't drill down from the top. I believe
you know that.

Speaker 2 (01:10:11):
Makes more sense. Could be a long way from the top.

Speaker 10 (01:10:13):
But yeah, they apparently Riches and Well Drilling and Palms
and North had puzzled with the only machine on the
North Island that could come in from the side.

Speaker 2 (01:10:24):
I wonder how far through they had to go, because
eighty hours it sounds like they're fairly quick.

Speaker 10 (01:10:31):
Well, as I say, I work with the guy and
that's all I know. He actually drove the truck up.

Speaker 17 (01:10:40):
There, so.

Speaker 2 (01:10:44):
Appreciate that. Well, so that's good information.

Speaker 5 (01:10:45):
Thank you for that.

Speaker 2 (01:10:47):
There we go knowing a bit more about that. Now, Yeah,
someone's got core samples at home. That'll be of the
not of that that particular one, but of the before
they did that. Of course, there's always around. There was
already already a railway that went to tit On. It
just went through the Klanga Hackey Gorge. So this was quicker,
more straight th' to what the old way. He railway

(01:11:08):
goes up that one, and it's called Goldfield's railway goes
up the old track. I think it's called gold Fields anyway.
Now someone said Marcus it just because that call, so
like Robert Muldoon, Yeah, well you've got a point there.
You got a point there. And funny enough, Rob Baldoon
was the person opened the tunnel when that opened, he
was the person that was the leader of the time.

(01:11:31):
We are talking the Kaimi Tunnel because the Kami Tunnel
collapsed was this day in nineteen seventy. We're also talking
Korean chicken just because it's what everyone's talking about and
eating those Korean corn dogs look good, don't they.

Speaker 17 (01:11:43):
With the.

Speaker 2 (01:11:45):
I don't even know what the history of them is.
But anyway, always something new, let's embrace it. I don't
know when Korean chicken became a thing. I think it's recent, well,
last thirty years. Maybe people will know Korean fried chicken.
It's got a double crust. I'm looking at its history now, Oh,

(01:12:08):
fifteenth century, so yeah, maybe not the last thirty years.
Nineteen eighty two it was invented, so it just was
marinated because he knows it was too hard. Anyway, that's
what we are talking about tonight. But if you want
to be a partake, that's the planned stand. It is
looking at the Kaimi tone, looking at the foot of

(01:12:30):
the It is just a single lane. It's just one way.
But yeah, of course there was no railway sleepers because
while you put railway sleepers through a concrete tunnel, it'll
be perfect to bite through.

Speaker 7 (01:12:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:12:46):
Pretty interesting character that and the guy that got the
Bravery Award for going and rescuing those people. But yes,
it was one of I mean there's because there's been people. Yeah,
I mean it's like one of those stories with the
miners and Tasmania and the miners that it's one of
those stories you follow, isn't it, Maty. It's Marcus good
evening that.

Speaker 6 (01:13:07):
Kind my tunnel information. Once I was set up, there
was like stories of madamount of farmers jumping on the
train and going over to Tower and Mount Monganuity.

Speaker 2 (01:13:18):
To the nightclubs, jumping on the jumping on the freight train.

Speaker 6 (01:13:23):
Yeah, they were like hobo style it and I kind
of figure out how they got on the train, and
I think I've figured it out tonight. It's when the
tunnel the year had to be cleared in the tunnel
and they had to wait sometimes and that's the time
you hop on your nightclub train cheapers because it wouldn't
stop anywhere apart from the in Hamilton or Auckland for

(01:13:46):
the milk powder or whatever they're taking across. But and
then at the other end it would stop at Mount
Monganui or the port and then you get off.

Speaker 2 (01:13:54):
There could be a better go to Hamilton nightclub, Mannie
have I No, wouldn't you be better for the choice
for the tod on that nightclub or Hamilton? When you
go you go to the out back end, wouldn't.

Speaker 6 (01:14:06):
You And Madam, I don't think the outback was opening
eight was.

Speaker 2 (01:14:12):
Trying to think, trying to think what the great Bay
of Plenty clubs were in the eighties. You might be right.

Speaker 6 (01:14:18):
It would be the Mount Longinui Hotel. I think the
one on them on the beach.

Speaker 2 (01:14:25):
Oh, the Mount Hotel, fantastic Hobbits. They have a nightclub
because some of those Lord of the Rings fans are
getting a bit older now, they could probably like a
bit of a party in the night.

Speaker 6 (01:14:34):
Yeah, I've got one of my daughters went to a
twenty first up there.

Speaker 2 (01:14:37):
The other night in the green fancy dress. A straight
up No, it was.

Speaker 6 (01:14:44):
It was business casual because I think the girl wants
to be an accountant. Was you know the office where?

Speaker 9 (01:14:49):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:14:52):
So it was a bit of a hood so that
they'd hide out the Bilbo Begins bar or whatever it's called.

Speaker 7 (01:14:57):
Yes, I think it was.

Speaker 6 (01:14:59):
One of the family's nieces or daughters or something. Yeah,
it was like a family connection.

Speaker 2 (01:15:04):
Did you were you so? Did you have to go
pick them up?

Speaker 14 (01:15:07):
No?

Speaker 6 (01:15:08):
No, one of them.

Speaker 19 (01:15:10):
Mate.

Speaker 6 (01:15:10):
They had a lovely car. They had like a nineteen
ninety two Mix five convertible that winter.

Speaker 2 (01:15:15):
Wow, the wheel they're a sober driver, yes.

Speaker 6 (01:15:20):
Yes, yes, yeah, they had a sober driver.

Speaker 4 (01:15:22):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:15:22):
Wow.

Speaker 6 (01:15:24):
Anyway, and a truck a truck wheel lifting story at
the bus stop today at the Hiowan opposite our farm,
a truck had come in in the night and he
didn't realize but there was a massive, like three meter
three meter mound of black gravel and he just came
into the truck stop. He hit it and rolled right over,

(01:15:44):
so he was he was like on its side. So
when all the all appearance came in this morning, there
was no there was no room at the end of
the bus stops. And so it's probably the the Rogubrick
company's fault for just dumping like it would be sex
truckloads of black metal with no cones. Like I thought
we were quite a cone friendly cones last night.

Speaker 2 (01:16:10):
Where is the schools at Cambridge?

Speaker 6 (01:16:12):
I know our kids go to Honeywere and Madamata College
and Matamata Intermediate while they go down twenty nine towards
the tunnel.

Speaker 2 (01:16:19):
Yeah brilliant. Okay, good on your money.

Speaker 17 (01:16:21):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:16:22):
Thirteen past ten dB. This is Marcus, Welcome, good evening.

Speaker 13 (01:16:26):
You beat me to it. I was going to tell
you that Cimber is a single track run under six
nice part controls.

Speaker 2 (01:16:32):
What do they make it single just because you're making
a tunnel your double track. It wouldn't you future make
a bigger tunnel cost twice. It probably costs more than twice.
It's about to be one of those more laws.

Speaker 13 (01:16:44):
And there was there with the traffic for it different
like Wellington's making track tunnels a double line because you've
got units come both ways, but no.

Speaker 11 (01:16:56):
Need for it.

Speaker 2 (01:16:58):
Took about this great if they took at this great
passenger triangle and fifty years tarp but anyway they can
probably enlarge it then get drones to get row, got
drones to do it.

Speaker 13 (01:17:10):
You've just timetable for There's just not the rail traffic anymore,
we say we because I keep thinking I'm part of railways.
Railways moves more talnaged now with fewer trains than it
has ever done in the past, So there isn't the
trains are just bigger. I've been to the matter had

(01:17:33):
a portal of cimeas as close as I've ever come
to that one. I've been through the other two regularly,
and one of the things that struck me is hot
air comes out of it, so it's downhill towards Towonga
and the rock is hot inside the tunnel, and so
the air gets hot and comes out from via conviction.

Speaker 2 (01:17:53):
How hot? How hot is it inside? Like three degrees hotter?

Speaker 13 (01:17:57):
No, call it a twenty four twenty five degrees c wow,
because we are I made, you know, we both most
it and it's very humid. And so I went and
head O yeah with the chief civil engineer because I'm
like that. I said, why is that tunnel got hot here?
And he said, I know, the dug through rockets relatively

(01:18:21):
coase to magma, and the tunnel is simply hot, and
so it's always breathing. And again the same as O
tira saxia to clean it, to purge the tunnel time,
I just does.

Speaker 2 (01:18:36):
It naturally natural purgia to natural purgia.

Speaker 6 (01:18:40):
Yeah, goodness.

Speaker 5 (01:18:41):
And of course.

Speaker 13 (01:18:43):
The room Attacker tunnel is different to both of them
because it's an apex tunnel. It goes up to a
point in the middle. The middle so you can't see
the end of the room Attacker tunnel. You can see
both Primi Tunnel and the Tierra tunnel.

Speaker 2 (01:19:01):
What's the gradient of it?

Speaker 7 (01:19:04):
Oh, that's a great question.

Speaker 2 (01:19:05):
I don't know.

Speaker 13 (01:19:05):
I know here obviously because I that's one of thirty three.

Speaker 2 (01:19:11):
So that might be some homework for you, dB.

Speaker 13 (01:19:15):
I'm more homework, thanks, boss.

Speaker 2 (01:19:19):
But I still think it's yeah, yeah, you don't and
you wouldn't remember the you wouldn't remember what a big
news story it was when it.

Speaker 13 (01:19:27):
Was cabsly and I thought they got down at an
angle from the top, not from the side. I'm prepared,
as usual to be wrong on that.

Speaker 2 (01:19:38):
I'm I'm they did they build a tunnel and they
pulled the people out through the tunnel like in that situation. Okay,
well that was pretty remarkable, wasn't it. And a capsule
or through a tube.

Speaker 13 (01:19:51):
I'm only your age.

Speaker 2 (01:19:53):
Yeah, some of them will know. It's not it's not
that much. There's not that much information online about it,
but I guess it's probably one of those things you'd
write more books about it.

Speaker 13 (01:20:00):
And of course writing and bicycle through it's no problem
because it's a continuous concrete teck.

Speaker 2 (01:20:04):
Yeah, but I think it'd be surprised that telethon was
such a big deal that they'd hold trains for it.

Speaker 13 (01:20:11):
Oh, we were a simple, simpler people in those days
in the garden.

Speaker 2 (01:20:15):
Sound that convincing. He sounded like a bit of a
loose unit to me. But they certainly there was no health.

Speaker 13 (01:20:20):
And safety just last because I said people would jump
the trains and go to the nightclubs. That would happen
while there was a guards fan still on the back.
I'm certain of it. Sit the guard five dollars top
on the guards man go to terror.

Speaker 2 (01:20:35):
I think there was a I didn't sound too approving
of that story because I think there was a story
recently with some people, not recent with the last ten years,
some people from some of those north of Canterbury had
jumped a train to go to go into town and
out and have got killed by note you remember that
that wasn't there might have been in your time.

Speaker 16 (01:20:52):
Actually well, hugely dangerous, hugely dangerous, especially.

Speaker 13 (01:20:58):
In the electrified areas. People get on the roof of
trains and I realize that the electric wire comes down
and almost touches the train.

Speaker 2 (01:21:04):
Yeah, yeah, probably best we don't talk about it, but
thank you. Here's midnight. Name is Marcus. Welcome. We talked
about the Chilean flame tree and the Kaimi Tunnel. I'm
worried about the Chilean frame, because when I walk around
the bluffil, I'm singing a lot, and it's very hard
to get rid off. You've got to dig out the roots.
The riise homes the whole she being. It'll take over

(01:21:25):
beck at your people. Eight hundred and eighty to eighty
nineteen past ten, Laureate's Marcus.

Speaker 12 (01:21:29):
Welcome, Ye hi Marcus here, I'll do this Chilean flame tree.
I was just thinking the guy didn't mention how they
got that. The guy is coming home from the nightclubs.

Speaker 2 (01:21:41):
You probably get you probably have an away game. I
think that's the plan.

Speaker 12 (01:21:45):
Getting back from milking.

Speaker 2 (01:21:46):
Well, yeah, I think you probably played your card rise
just get Yeah. I don't know how you go, but
actually that's a good.

Speaker 12 (01:21:50):
Point to roll off there somewhere rather Yeah. Yeah, hey,
on your way, you've got the African or the Chilean
flame creeper. Have they released any beatles around your way?

Speaker 7 (01:22:03):
Well?

Speaker 2 (01:22:04):
Are they're talking about it?

Speaker 7 (01:22:05):
I might.

Speaker 2 (01:22:05):
I wouldn't mind me ground zero for the beetles, because
I am worried.

Speaker 12 (01:22:09):
Yeah, they apparently they have been released in some places.
I see they managed to find the host beetle from
Chili itself. You know, and more over here.

Speaker 11 (01:22:23):
And a whole of the eggs.

Speaker 12 (01:22:24):
But apparently the only other thing that got interested in
was some sort of Chinese cabbage.

Speaker 19 (01:22:28):
And you'd be.

Speaker 2 (01:22:29):
Worried about releasing beetles though when you look at the
cane toads and stuff, I mean there are You'd have
to be pretty sure of yourself, wouldn't you.

Speaker 12 (01:22:35):
They do a lot of testing on all sorts of
every other plants and the sea. If it takes a
liking to them, in most cases, they won't release it
of it. I mean, leank here research are the ones
doing that one They went over and picked up those beetles.
But there's a similar thing. I did some jobs for them.

(01:22:57):
They at in Auckland. They breed beetles for the African
flowering tulip tree, which is a big them up and
Raa and they have been releasing beatles up there.

Speaker 2 (01:23:11):
Uh.

Speaker 12 (01:23:13):
And I've done photography at different times to see, well,
on one money on one occasion during the flowering, to
just see how effective the beetle treatment is.

Speaker 2 (01:23:23):
Has it been Has it been successful?

Speaker 12 (01:23:26):
Well? I think that certainly had a had an impact. Yeah,
I mean they keep assessing it because it's a bit
probably a bit like this other one, you know, the
that's the same type of thing that it gets up
into the canopy and it's sort of far more robust,
and it sort of takes over the canopy.

Speaker 2 (01:23:47):
Because most of your things, most of the things you
gorsed in your BlackBerry and stuff, the canopy will supersede it.
But this, if it covers the canopy, that that's the
world of heard.

Speaker 12 (01:23:55):
Yeah, yeah, and that's there seemed to be the the
that one plus plus the the tuil tree. When there's
any wind damage or stuff like that, it's it's if
that type of plant will get up and take over
and that not only it shades the other plants, but
I mean then you luck at some stage I might
get a job of taking some photos down.

Speaker 9 (01:24:16):
Your w.

Speaker 2 (01:24:19):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I wonder what the great success is
with what with beetles have been There must.

Speaker 12 (01:24:25):
Be some a yeah, well, you know they've they've had
quite a big impact on the heather in the central
North Island. Yeah, yeah, yeah, there's large areas they introduced
them to start with. In the particular beetles they brought
over didn't really take off for quite a while. Remember,
checking a whole lot of the sites and supposedly that

(01:24:47):
there were duds. They the actual beetles that they brought
over actually had internal parasites and sort of so they
were functioning properly. And I thought it was a bit
of a failure for a while, and then they got
onto it and then reintroduced some healthy beetles and you know,
they're making big impact on you know, tom r National Park.

Speaker 2 (01:25:08):
Uh, yeah, it's I thought here there was a nice plant,
but I guess any plant on the wrong time will
take over, won't it.

Speaker 12 (01:25:16):
Yeah, well it was destroying all the native grasses and yeah,
I mean in the heather in the right place is
a nice plant. And that when they introduced it, it
was they were hoping to sort of have for the
hunting set, you know, like the felt like quail and

(01:25:37):
stuff like that kind of there was going to be
sort of big hunting areas. But and the beekeepers love
it because the well, but the honey was worth probably
four or five times as much as the.

Speaker 2 (01:25:52):
Ordinary honey flavor or unique factor.

Speaker 12 (01:25:56):
It's called ling. It's what a sound very popular in Europe,
Germany and in Scotland.

Speaker 11 (01:26:04):
Yeah, so it's but you know, it's called ling.

Speaker 2 (01:26:08):
Hither honey is it? Yeah, yeah, yeah, Ling was the
type of fish.

Speaker 12 (01:26:13):
Well, I think I've got the quite quite the right wind,
but you know you might you.

Speaker 2 (01:26:17):
I mean, look, I don't want to affect chick mccallers,
but yeah, no Ling never heard of Ling.

Speaker 12 (01:26:23):
Because he used to get You know, we're talking around
about the chateau and that when the heather was and flair.
You find all the beekeepers from all over the place.
They would put all their hives along the highway. They
couldn't they couldn't put them inside the national pack where
they put them just across the road.

Speaker 2 (01:26:43):
It's called the Champagne of honey.

Speaker 12 (01:26:45):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, before before the Minookah thing took ing.

Speaker 11 (01:26:52):
Yeah, brilliant.

Speaker 2 (01:26:53):
God tell you what. It's not for the quiz, but
my mind's expanding. The Ling and the Chilean flower get
in touch. People like how to romp through the topics tonight?
Just want to cover off Quorean chicken. That's probably a
slam dunk with my card for tonight. Got calls on
most topics. It wouldn't mind. Might know more about the rescue.
You don't know about that crowd, Laurie, Yeah, horizontal bar

(01:27:15):
you don't know that the horizontal bars in Parmerston, North
Do you that I.

Speaker 12 (01:27:19):
Know the name of the app A Richardson Drilling are around?

Speaker 2 (01:27:23):
Yeah, Ken, it's right, We've got wet checked that Richardson's Drilling.
Thanks Lurry. Twenty six past ten. Let's look at the
texts tonight. Yeah, Marcus, I hate the thought of introduction
for an insects. That's the good point. Oh anyway, get

(01:27:43):
in touch eight hundred and eighty to the text. Yeah,
pattits Marcus, welcome.

Speaker 5 (01:27:49):
I agree.

Speaker 19 (01:27:50):
Then.

Speaker 5 (01:27:51):
Yeah, I was in the tunnel when it collapsed. Oh yeah,
well it's quite a few years ago. The local paper
in Mada mat had done a story about two years ago,
done two pages of it. Oh, look that up.

Speaker 2 (01:28:07):
So were you one of the twelve that run their pet?

Speaker 5 (01:28:10):
Yeah, I was the first one they got out. They
dunk me out, or about eight or nine hours I
was trapped in there. Then I went to Poland Hospital
and I just opened, I believe, and I think I
was one of the first patients.

Speaker 2 (01:28:26):
Yeah, it wasn't. It wasn't.

Speaker 17 (01:28:28):
I just saw that.

Speaker 2 (01:28:29):
That's yeah, it's not important, but it's a meta metter
Poland hospital that was It's not a hospital I've heard of,
but that's the hospital there is it?

Speaker 5 (01:28:37):
The Poland Hospital.

Speaker 2 (01:28:39):
It's a private one, I understand.

Speaker 5 (01:28:42):
I don't know whether it's still there now, but it
was brand new then there.

Speaker 2 (01:28:47):
He did you come across pet you sound with an extent?
Had you come across from overseas as a tunneler?

Speaker 17 (01:28:53):
No? No.

Speaker 5 (01:28:53):
I was in the merchant navy, okay, and I met
a Mada mad a girl in Techton, ended up getting
married and come and working as a tunnel as a rigor.

Speaker 2 (01:29:05):
So how fat I was where you keep going?

Speaker 3 (01:29:08):
Yep?

Speaker 5 (01:29:09):
I was working with a guy called Malcolm Clodia and
when the tunnel collapsed, they run out before he got
blown out there to get help. And while he was
away the rest of the tunnel came in and the
maid of mine, Russell Ellicott, who was a truck driver
there was part of the done all the work with

(01:29:30):
the rescue, you know, count and stuff in and out.

Speaker 2 (01:29:33):
How far from the mouth of the tunnel was it?

Speaker 5 (01:29:37):
I was about or a hundred feet in. We were work.
We were working there's Malcolm and myself were working on
the bottom drive and we were pumping ground through to
try and stop the water coming in on top of us,
and I think the drought caused it to overload on

(01:30:00):
the top in the hill and put too much weight
up there, and then she collapsed because only wooden supports.

Speaker 2 (01:30:08):
So when it collapsed, there was you were. It wasn't
totally collapsed. There was a cavern that you were in.

Speaker 6 (01:30:13):
Is that right.

Speaker 5 (01:30:14):
Yeah. There had two drives at the top drive and
a bottom drive, and Malcolm and herself were working on
the bottom drive, and there was tunnelers up on the
on the top level. There were tunneling out the stuff
by hand because it was too loose to blow.

Speaker 2 (01:30:32):
And I just can't just going to have the headlines
going to come back to you just told your horses,
so so pet with the with the boring from the side.
They didn't need to do that for you because you
went out through the portal.

Speaker 6 (01:30:46):
Is that right.

Speaker 5 (01:30:47):
We were working on the bottom portal. There was two portals,
and we were about or probably about three hundred feet
inside the tunnel, and then the tunnel we noticed that
these little wagons were overflowing, so Malcolm went to shift
them and then he yelled out to me, run she's

(01:31:08):
caving in. And I tried running towards the portal, but
I had their waiters on and were about or knee
deep in water, and it was pretty hard to run
with waiters on. Then I got cut off in front
of me, and there was one of the tunnelers were
sliding down, and he told me to run back to

(01:31:29):
the face and I turned to run back and the
rest of it caved in, and I was standing there
and there was just a little gap down the side,
so I shot through there. Then that collapsed, and that
there was an electric locomotive there. When it caved in,

(01:31:50):
the timber rested on the motors on the electric motors
and stopped it from crushing me completely. Then it took
them took me about nine hours or so to dig
me out.

Speaker 2 (01:32:01):
And did you have communication or any light for those
nine hours? Did you know that they were coming for you?

Speaker 5 (01:32:08):
Malcolm? When he got out there, there was a couple
of tunnelers, a guy called Terry Jones, and a few
others that took turns in coming in. They couldn't see me,
but they could hear me, and they just kept me
talking all the time until it got me clear.

Speaker 2 (01:32:26):
Well, And where were the other people that were tricked
for the long length of time. Were they close to
you or they they.

Speaker 5 (01:32:34):
Were on the top on the top level. But the no, no,
that they didn't have any communications through a couple of
days because they had to put big pipes and through
the ground. They put the phone into them, and then
they got one big enough to get them out one
by one. They took them about or two weeks I

(01:32:58):
think it was to get them out.

Speaker 2 (01:33:00):
And they got them out. That they got them out
through the hole they drilled.

Speaker 5 (01:33:04):
Yeah. Yeah, they drilled the hole through the side of
the put pipes in and and blasted the way with
small bits of dinner. And the guy would go into
the pipe and put the bull of grub rubble in
the buckets and they would pull it out and then
they would bang it in a bit further. And the
pipes was about just over a meter in diameter, hi,

(01:33:29):
the big steel pipes. And they put them in on
an angle and until they got through the where the
guys were. And then then they got them one by
one and.

Speaker 2 (01:33:40):
One just dragged them out on a rope that they
all pulled them out.

Speaker 3 (01:33:43):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:33:44):
Yeah. And there was four four guys killed, and there
was there was a there were a couple injured and
my injuries weren't too bad, just bruising. I couldn't walk
for about two or three weeks because I had squashed
my leg and they they.

Speaker 2 (01:34:03):
Handled well, they got your bat. You went back to
work there there was no Yeah.

Speaker 5 (01:34:07):
Yeah, I was off work for oh, I don't know
about about two months, yes, and then I went back
to work and worked there for all four years. And
I got a transfer to the Antley Power Station and
went there for a few years and went down to
Cromwell on the Clyde Dam.

Speaker 6 (01:34:28):
Oh.

Speaker 2 (01:34:29):
Gee, you've had a good look round.

Speaker 5 (01:34:31):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:34:31):
Wow, are you still in Are you still in Cromwell?

Speaker 5 (01:34:34):
Now I'm in Hamilton. Now you've worked around with it
a yeah, done retired.

Speaker 2 (01:34:40):
How many people worked on the Kaimi Tunnel at the
at the peak of it.

Speaker 5 (01:34:45):
Oh, there must have been around about two hundred, two
hundred and fifty.

Speaker 2 (01:34:49):
And were they kiwi's or they get to go overseas
to get the tunnels?

Speaker 5 (01:34:53):
Oh, there was mostly kiwi's. There was a few from
Ireland and Australia. There was a few guys from Australia
that they'd done Obal mining and yeah, but folk of
them were from Mata matter, you know, our support crew.

Speaker 2 (01:35:09):
Yeah, I would have it would have been must have
been quite an a those projects must have been quite
apart from the collipse, must have been quite exciting things
to be a part of.

Speaker 5 (01:35:20):
It wasn't at the time, but when I look back
at it, it's something you know, happened in my life
and I got away with it.

Speaker 2 (01:35:27):
Yeah, Yeah, that's right.

Speaker 5 (01:35:30):
I met a lot of good people.

Speaker 2 (01:35:33):
And I imagine with all those projects, ever reunions and
get together and stuff and tell the old stories, would you.

Speaker 5 (01:35:39):
Yeah, we used to, but it dropped off over the years.

Speaker 2 (01:35:44):
Well it's a long time ago. I mean you must be.
You must have been your seventies or eighties, because I
mean it's fifty six years.

Speaker 5 (01:35:50):
Yeah, I'm seventy eight.

Speaker 2 (01:35:53):
Yeah, so yeah, okay, so you wouldn't have been.

Speaker 3 (01:35:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:35:55):
Did you work on Manipuri as well?

Speaker 5 (01:35:57):
Or No? No, I didn't work there. It's worked on
the at Hamley and Cromwell. Then I went up to
on the geothermal station. Yes, and then bat Coop made
Redundant had come back to Hamilton start the ILSWA washing
business up.

Speaker 2 (01:36:14):
And you weren't. You didn't have long you didn't have
repercussions or sustained long injuries from the collapse. You were
all right after that?

Speaker 5 (01:36:23):
Now, I was all right after a couple of months.

Speaker 2 (01:36:26):
Did you give ever go through it on a train?

Speaker 22 (01:36:29):
No?

Speaker 5 (01:36:29):
I didn't, but I went back in there the work
a few times when I got when it got up
and going again.

Speaker 2 (01:36:37):
But do they have you at the did they have that?
Did they have those people that were trapped at the
opening of the tunnel? Were they something that they make
a Did they make compensations for you at that one
to acknowledge what you've been through?

Speaker 21 (01:36:49):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (01:36:49):
Yeah, we got compensation and when the tunnel opened, not
when it opened a year later. We had a meeting
and went down to the tunnel because they've got a
little plaque, a plaque outside the tunnel.

Speaker 2 (01:37:08):
Oh yes, I saw that yere online with the people
that have dying.

Speaker 5 (01:37:12):
And the lady I forget it's the local press in
Hamilton in there in madaw Matter sorry, and they've got
a museum. But they're waiting for consent from the Cromwell,
from the Matamatter Press to get the to call it
ownership of these railways, the railway lines that the carriages

(01:37:35):
are sitting on and it's you know where Tower Road
where the tower is. They're just in there and there's
a lot of volunteers have done all the work to
get it ready and the council.

Speaker 2 (01:37:49):
It's a museum about the tunnel, is it what it's
a museum about?

Speaker 13 (01:37:53):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (01:37:53):
Yeah, all about the tunnel and there's articles about the
guys and then photographs and everything.

Speaker 2 (01:38:01):
I'll see if I can have a look about that. Look, Pet,
I really appreciate you coming through, so thank you so
much for that call. Yeah, amazing to talk to you,
So I appreciate that. Twenty one away from Timbs Commercials
becksone nineteen to eleven, eight hundred and eighty to Tenndy Markets. Marcus.
Welcome Marcus.

Speaker 23 (01:38:19):
Yeah, yeah, Mark's the name. I lived in Meta Matter
in those days and one of the I had a
flat there, and Peter Clarkson was only about eighteen. He
was a flatmaid of mine and he was one of

(01:38:39):
the ones that got killed in there.

Speaker 2 (01:38:42):
Oh hell he was only eighteen.

Speaker 23 (01:38:45):
Well yeah, he had I worked there, had a had
a I started off there with a TENRB at drag
lint in Meda Matter and then I bought a hydraulic
digger and I was working for the Ministry of Work

(01:39:05):
there and we got a flat in mad A Matter
and he got killed. And his name was Peter Clarkson.

Speaker 2 (01:39:16):
Yeah, okay, I think I saw his name on the
memorial too.

Speaker 23 (01:39:19):
Yeah wow yeah, And I went carried on up to
the top of the Common Tunnel over the year. Sorry
her brain's going but anyhow, Yeah, I had a Frinday

(01:39:44):
noted there working for the Minister Works when it happened,
and I was working there at that stage.

Speaker 2 (01:39:54):
And Mark, Mark, do you remember much about the rescue?
I think he said it was a number of days?

Speaker 18 (01:39:59):
Was it?

Speaker 2 (01:39:59):
Do you remember? Because if I was just wadning around
to hear the news that we don't remember that.

Speaker 11 (01:40:05):
No, I was.

Speaker 23 (01:40:07):
We were working shipwork and he never come home. We
had a house that we rented in madow Matter and
his family lived not far from there, the farmers, and

(01:40:28):
he had a girlfriend that he had a.

Speaker 4 (01:40:37):
Baby too.

Speaker 23 (01:40:38):
When we were after that, when we're living there in
the flat.

Speaker 15 (01:40:45):
That was.

Speaker 23 (01:40:47):
It goes back many years now because I was only
about he was only about eighteen, I think, and I
was about twenty twenty one. And because I remember it

(01:41:09):
that because I got my teeth out at home stage
because you could get the government to.

Speaker 4 (01:41:22):
Do the job.

Speaker 23 (01:41:26):
Because I'd left school with we just affording and a
half I think it was. But anyhow, that was many
years ago, but very very nice guy. And the other

(01:41:46):
person now flat mate was Dave Swell from tyror On
he Li's over to Helen's full now. But anyhow, that's
all I know.

Speaker 17 (01:41:57):
Marke.

Speaker 2 (01:41:58):
Nice to hear from me, Thanks so much for that.
Fifteen away from eleven High Normos Marcus welcome, Hi, Hi Marcus,
how are you good? Norm Thank you?

Speaker 9 (01:42:10):
Hi.

Speaker 3 (01:42:11):
About Andrey, you know like he's he's got a couple
of slat advantages in his life, and one is a
war veteran, and two he's a sailor. And I wonder
if he could redeem himself by going back in the Navy.

Speaker 2 (01:42:34):
I don't think that would be in his nature. He
seems to be a When you say he was a sailor,
was he in a helicopter regiment with the Navy?

Speaker 5 (01:42:44):
Was heah?

Speaker 14 (01:42:45):
Yeah?

Speaker 17 (01:42:46):
Two?

Speaker 3 (01:42:47):
Aukland swore why.

Speaker 2 (01:42:48):
Do they have the helicopters with the Navy? Is it
because they are tied to aircraft carriers?

Speaker 3 (01:42:53):
Yeah, he was a seating pilot. He is a seeking pilot.

Speaker 2 (01:43:02):
Just try to look what you're seeking was, Oh that's
that yellow one with the nice.

Speaker 3 (01:43:05):
Looking Yeah yeah yeah, made made of all work? See king,
get made of what? Made of all work? You know
that like their versatile and they do lots of things. Yeah, yeah,
maybe he's too old for that though, you.

Speaker 2 (01:43:24):
Know, I don't think he'll be going well, I don't know.
I mean, he wouldn't have kept his hours up with there.
I don't think he's I think he's spent most of us.
I don't think he's been flying the helicopter since No.

Speaker 3 (01:43:34):
Yeah, yeah, slender life line you know, might make it.
They might make exceptions.

Speaker 14 (01:43:42):
For him, but I don't care.

Speaker 2 (01:43:44):
I don't care. That he's still in line for the throne.
Doesn't worry, I mean the slightest as far as you
because he's not. He's not going to be king either.
You have to be seven perish before, not now, not
after this well, I mean yeah, but but I think
still on the statutes he would. But yeah, okay, good
to talk net Norm.

Speaker 14 (01:43:59):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:44:00):
Tend to tend to tend to tend to ten to
eleven eight away from eleven. Primary topic is the Kymi tuddle.
This nineteen seventy was the collapse of the Kaimi tunnel.
Took them a long time to build the tunnel. Let's
not forget that. I think, what did he say, opened

(01:44:21):
in nineteen seventy eight. That's a long time when they
were forever building it. And I don't think probably the well,
obviously the caven wouldn't have helped. Yeah, it was opened
in nineteen seventy eight. They started investigating it in nineteen
fifty five, and they pushed go on it. I think

(01:44:43):
nineteen sixty two they kind of oh, yeah, I think
when I started ninety. Yeah, construction started nineteen sixty five,
so it was thirteen years to build, longer than the
aukand rail loop. It shortened the distance between Totong and
Hamilton by fifty one and a half kilometers. So yes,
so it was a fairly worthwhile thing to do. Mister

(01:45:06):
carried it out and they had a tunnel boring machine
a TBM, although I don't think it worked that well
bego the rock was too hot or too hard. A
Java tunneling machine was purchased and reported from the United
States in nineteen seventy at a cost of one point
four million dollars. Wow, it's an expensive but a kit.
And I guess you were the only one tunnel boring

(01:45:28):
machine agains start one end. So he has a fairly
interesting Wikipedia page about that. And yeah, it was delayed
for several months after the cavern So that's a situation.
The two headings of the tunnel workings met on the
fourth of June nineteen seventy six and they opened the
tunnel with the silver Fern railcar RM three on board,

(01:45:51):
with various railway officials apart and a party of fifty
disabled way at school children. There we go. That's a
situation there, and that's what we are talking about tonight.
Twenty two freight train movements per day since we got
dB said there's more freight going in the railways than

(01:46:13):
there ever has been. Mind you, the networks a lot less.
They're up to twenty two weekday freight train movements per
day through the Kaimi Tunnel and nineteen movements per day
during the weekend. Freight imported over this route and transport
includes into port container traffic, timber and timber products, coal,
manufactured goods, and petroleum. So there we go. That's what

(01:46:37):
we're on about tonight and Corey and Chicken and anything
else you want to talk about that's taking your fancy
discussion wise to beverage along from twelve o'clock tonight. So yes, Now,
as far as international news tonight, as I'm always keeping
an eye on for you, I haven't got much that

(01:46:57):
I can see. Feverit of coverage in the UK about Mendelssohn,
who's in a lot of trouble for secrets and well
it seems though everyone and I'm sure there's going to
be all sorts of I mean, these emails are going
to Boy, the consequence to those are going to resonate
for a long long time, I would think. But yeah,

(01:47:20):
that's a situation there.

Speaker 11 (01:47:22):
Now.

Speaker 2 (01:47:22):
Look, if you want to be a part of the
show after the news, that would be a good plan.
Give us a call during it. Eight hundred and eighty,
ten eighty if you are a text nine to nine
two and I think I'm pretty much up to scratch
with what's going on. Oh, thank you for that article
someone sent me. Oh there's a picture of the boring machine.
Appreciate that. Yes, get in touch, you've got anything to add, Oh,

(01:47:44):
eight hundred and eighty. Oh, Gillot's Marcus. So, I didn't
see you there. Gillot's Marcus.

Speaker 24 (01:47:49):
Good evening, Good evening, Marcus. I went to school with
Peter Oh, and I was actually working in mathematic at
the time. I went all for in a school by
that stage. And it was pretty horrendous being in town
because people were coming in and saying, did san So
go to work today? Did someone else go to work today?

(01:48:12):
And it was pretty general. But not long after they
were notified that there had been a mishap at the tunnel.
There was a local catering company and they put up
tents out there so that they could actually feed them
while they were out there, because they were and they
realized they could probably be in for the long haul.

Speaker 2 (01:48:34):
Yeah, goodness, I appreciate you coming through, Jill. Thank you
so much for that. If you want to talk more
about this after the news, it was a very big
news story at the time. You might have some reminiscence
about that eight hundred and eighty ten eighty if you
want to, and I remember it vividly. If you want
to text nine to nine two. We're talking about the
Kaimi Tunnel collapse. This day in nineteen seventy. How are

(01:48:56):
you people? My name is Marcus. Could even hitdle twelve
o'clock at tims along at midnight. We're discussing the Kaimi
Tunnel and the collapse, amongst other stuff. If you want
to partake, that's the planned people. Seven past eleven. Hi, ken,
this is Marcus. Good evening, evening.

Speaker 4 (01:49:13):
Marcus, just ring a bit of information on the on
the tunnel machine. The tunnel machine was put in on
the mata matter side to drill and it wasn't suitable
for that. The ground was in suitable, so they turned
around and put it on the other side and on
the on the mata matter side. They drove that with
the drawing in blasting on.

Speaker 2 (01:49:31):
The other side. They just took explosives and shovels.

Speaker 5 (01:49:35):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:49:35):
Yeah, the right and Markey out to the draw run
around and marketing out of each shift and that side,
the conventional side where during and shunting was. They met
it halfway, and they planned to meet in a halfway,
and they met it half way. And the conventional side,

(01:49:56):
the rock rock drilling side, was far ahead of the
tailing machine when they got it a halfway, so they've
turned out to be a better method initial factor. We
supplied the gear for the rock for the rock.

Speaker 2 (01:50:06):
Linko and for not much not much secondhand market for
drilling machines. I just always seem to use some abandon them,
don't They never never seen them anywhere else?

Speaker 3 (01:50:15):
What we so?

Speaker 11 (01:50:15):
What you just have?

Speaker 2 (01:50:16):
You'd never you'd have a and you made a drill.
But and you're drilling and put dynamite in and blow
it up? Is that what you're doing?

Speaker 4 (01:50:22):
That's right? Yeah, yeah, you did a lot of those days.
I think they had to eat it with glear legs
with with with a rock drill, and the probably had
about three meters on around he probably output in the shift.

Speaker 2 (01:50:36):
I wonder how far they going a day. I suppose
we could walk it out if it was nine kilometers
and it took them took them twelve.

Speaker 4 (01:50:43):
Years, six years the whole time. Yeah, it was a
good job. But it was a very power from my
company that a WED.

Speaker 2 (01:50:53):
I imagine there was all sorts of contingencies with moving
the explosives and storing them and stuff like that. It's
not it comes with its own challenges, doesn't it.

Speaker 6 (01:51:01):
It did?

Speaker 4 (01:51:02):
He did about that?

Speaker 2 (01:51:03):
Ye lovely to talking good information. Thank you.

Speaker 20 (01:51:06):
Good evening, Yeah, very good evening, your Marcus, just briefly
on the rescue at the Climber tunnel and then when
we went through the tunnel on a train on their rescue.
I've only heard and pieces of your program tonight, but
I remember the actual two foot round of roughly two
foot dime at a steel pipe getting put down on

(01:51:27):
a sort of forty five degree angle through the ground.
It was hammered down and a man the rescue men
would be a man on his belly, lying down head
first on a little four wheel trolley. So he went
down with a bucket and small shovel digging the dirt out,
and he get pulled out. They'd remove that dirt out

(01:51:49):
of the bucket. Then he'd go down head first again.
And that pipe, steel pipe was hammered down so that
it took quite a long time. Was only going down
inch by inch as it were, until I got them.
Before they did that, they put a I think it
was about a four inch dome, but a hole down
the phone and food and that.

Speaker 2 (01:52:11):
A phone line. Yeah, yeah, you wonder how you wonder
how you hammer a big middle thing like that down
into but you know, well, yeah.

Speaker 20 (01:52:19):
That part of easy going, but it was a slow
process because they were hammering it down onto solid ground
and the chap on his belly was scraping it out
from the inside. Then he he get pulled out on
the trolley and then back down again, so he's lying
on his belly, which would be pretty uncomfortable and uncomfortable.

(01:52:39):
And then when they eventually fixed all that up, they
they left that part of it all open. The collapsed
part of that mine entrance remained an open like a
channel going in and anyway, I'm not quite sure how
muchs later, but the actual I remember going through. The

(01:52:59):
woman and her young family went through on a train
from Hamilton to the mount and it wasn't for operational
because there was no air conditioning inside, and when you
went through you could smell the fumes from the diesel train,
and I recalled, I think it took twelve minutes to
go right through, so I look my watch when we
got to the six minute mark. I knew then that

(01:53:22):
we're getting near the exit part of it. But the
good thing was when we got over to the mount,
the I think it was the frigate, the white Kado
Navy ship was there and they were letting the public on.
You got on near the stern end, walk along on
the deck, and then got off about two thirds of
the way along. So that was quite interesting. It was

(01:53:42):
tied up with the WAF there at the mount.

Speaker 2 (01:53:46):
Do you remember much of you now? You keep going
because you've got to hit a steam up to say
what you're going to say?

Speaker 20 (01:53:50):
Well, I was going to say it was I think
I remember there was three pit men killed, wasn't it?

Speaker 3 (01:53:55):
It was four year four?

Speaker 10 (01:53:57):
Was it there?

Speaker 17 (01:53:58):
Four?

Speaker 2 (01:53:59):
And I remember Calvin that because it was a rebig
news story, were they having like updates throughout the day?
I can't think what the even news would be. I
imagine that they have live crosses at at the seven
o'clock bullet or wherever it was, when the whole of
the country would be following that story fairly closely.

Speaker 20 (01:54:15):
Yeah, it was just that the TV news part. It
was at nighttime, of course. Yeah, so that's when you'd
only hear then. The radio was just bits and pieces
during the day on the air news broadcasts of how
it was progressing.

Speaker 17 (01:54:31):
And that.

Speaker 20 (01:54:32):
I'd even forgotten that they actually had a machine there.
I thought it was called you know, i'd forgotten about that.
I thought it was done by hand.

Speaker 2 (01:54:39):
Well, apparently they left the machine at the portal. You
could see that for a long time, and then they
got dangerous with people caring and climate. It's about twenty
years ago they decommissioned it. But yeah, there seems to
be no market for those machines once they've been used.
Normally they bore them into the side of the tunnel
and just leave them there.

Speaker 23 (01:54:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 20 (01:54:57):
Oh well, yeah, it's a long time ago. Now, when
was it nineteen seventy something?

Speaker 2 (01:55:01):
It was today, nineteen seventies, that's fifty six years ago.

Speaker 20 (01:55:05):
Yeah, my phone sound there?

Speaker 14 (01:55:07):
Is it all right?

Speaker 2 (01:55:08):
That's good? Oh yeah, do you want it to sound good?

Speaker 13 (01:55:13):
Yeah?

Speaker 20 (01:55:13):
Well, I yesterday when I rang up evening, it was
a bit crackly.

Speaker 9 (01:55:18):
You know.

Speaker 20 (01:55:18):
I rang up just a few minutes ago it was
the same problem. So I walked closer to the modem.
It's only a knee and you I haven't had this
phone very long and I'm not in complete control of everything.

Speaker 2 (01:55:30):
You'd be a landline guy, they wouldn't you, Calvin.

Speaker 20 (01:55:33):
I was a landline and the spark and New Zealand
government tried getting all of the sland line, people off landlines,
and you know, one of the modern stuff. So I
succumbed to the pressure.

Speaker 2 (01:55:49):
You're joking, I thought you made of steering the stuff, Calvin.

Speaker 20 (01:55:52):
Well, I was because when I rang through the Spark
New Zealand phone number to get them to organize it
all the phone that was answering the Philippines and the
woman on the Philippines organized at all. But either she
or somebody in there or New Zealand. When I went
to use my landline a few hours later, everything was dead.

(01:56:14):
My phone was dead for four weeks. Oh hell, so
I even had so a lot of people on talkback
after midnight after ringing up wanting to know where the
hell Calvin was, and even hands A Dutchman used to
have a bakery and pie effort of New Zealand here
for years. He rang up, He moved, he left New
Zealand after many years, and he went to live in France.

(01:56:36):
And he rang up from France one morning. I wanted
to know where the hell Calvin was. Well, I could
hear all this going on, but I couldn't reply because
they had no phone.

Speaker 2 (01:56:44):
Where was his pie shop.

Speaker 20 (01:56:46):
In New Zealand?

Speaker 2 (01:56:49):
I should have seen a letter Calvin, we're gone to
know does he be? But four weeks in the long
just tell us that you're okay.

Speaker 20 (01:56:59):
Well, the chap who what's his name now? Graham the
radio host part time radio host Minty. He works here
and lives in Hamilton, and he recalled from when they
used to have the z B Hamilton station on Saturday

(01:57:20):
mornings in the sports and they used to have a
part where you could ring up and if you like,
you caller and chosen, they'd pick a bet out. You
could choose from three different bets. So this chap Minty,
he did a few programs after midnight from Auckland just
in recent months. But then he got it all organized

(01:57:41):
to do it from Hamilton, saving him drive up to where,
up to the city there and anyway, he remembered where.
He had a fair idea where I lived. So he
came down here one day to see if I'm still
alive or not. And he's able to report back after
midnight the next day when he's on the radio that yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:58:01):
Goodness, that's fine. That's a fine line of protecting anonymity
and coming around. Good on them.

Speaker 20 (01:58:06):
And next time I ring, I'll tell you about my
working in the South Island, but in the Weaker Pass
you know that just north of Amberley with the railway
frog Rock, the railway line right next to it, next
to the main road, and the right inside of the fence.
And I had my own key to unlock the padlock
to drive through, and it was all closed and there

(01:58:29):
each side of when the train was due through.

Speaker 2 (01:58:33):
Anyway, I went hold, what they give you permission to
drive through?

Speaker 20 (01:58:38):
Well, I I was carting all the big pylons and
I used to cut Jelic Knight.

Speaker 2 (01:58:45):
Oh you had the Jelic Knight on you did you?
Why did up the road?

Speaker 5 (01:58:50):
Well?

Speaker 20 (01:58:50):
I went along the main road, Tassa Road, and right
next to it was the fence. Then the railway line
had to cross over that to go up the sheer
drive up the cliffs driveway, you know, made roadway sort
of thing going up and counting the pylons up there. Okay, yeah, yeah,

(01:59:12):
they're all Jaelic Knight. And there was white or cord
X I think it was cord cord X, fuse y
and little detonators they used to have them in the
glove box, little detonators, and another little black tin they
were packing sawdus. I didn't like them because they were
very dangerous things.

Speaker 2 (01:59:30):
I'm going to run kelv it. Nice to talk to you.
Thank you for that. Eighteen past eleven lines fifty ort
to talk eight hundred and eighty eighty. I don't know
what that message numbering three five one as people, but
you do come through two aout the kite. Yeah. I
can't carese how the media what happened with that because
it seemed to be a big story. That's what we
are talking about, and Corey and Chicken, but mainly Kaima.

(01:59:53):
I don't know much about that.

Speaker 17 (01:59:54):
That.

Speaker 2 (01:59:54):
Yeah, they talk about the Polon hospital and mud and Mutter,
that's where they all went. That's not a name that
I know about. But they reckon. That was a private deal,
so someone might know a bit about that. Of course,
very close to Hobbiton, now, isn't it didn't manage to
get the hobbited on my North Island trip. We thought
about it, but just the time it didn't work out
quite right for Hobbited. That's all right, never say never
looking forward. You called Hittle twelve. Hello, Diane, it's Marcus.

(02:00:19):
Good evening, Hello Marcus.

Speaker 19 (02:00:23):
First time coller so nice.

Speaker 2 (02:00:24):
To hear from you, Diane, thank you for ringing.

Speaker 19 (02:00:26):
Yeah. I was just going off to sleep and I
said I'll have a listener, and I also listen to
you and I heard a guy talking about the Carima tunnel. Yeah,
my husband was killed in the tunnel long time ago,
like another last time.

Speaker 2 (02:00:45):
And it was it was today at nineteen seventy. Yeah, okay,
I was just aware of that myself too, so wow, yeah,
it was.

Speaker 19 (02:00:57):
You know, it was. It was a huge thing in
that day. And I can remember driving in to meet
the bus from the tunnel and I had a whole
lot of little children with me and I was just
learning to drive, and I waited for the bus to
come in for the tunnels, and the bus didn't come

(02:01:18):
and I then someone came over and told me that
the tunnel had collapsed. So of course my first thoughts were,
you know, run home, get a shovel and go back
in and dig him out. But it was a month
before they got a lot of the bodies out. It

(02:01:38):
was a very formatic time for people. And one couple
had a young a young lad had just started he
put his age up and he just started working there.
So yeah, just the memory of it all. One guy
had to dig someone out. He was drowning and he

(02:02:00):
had to dig him out with his bare hands. Yeah,
a lot of bravery.

Speaker 2 (02:02:06):
You talked about Were they your kids with or you
as a teacher with the bus you talked about driving lady,
drive a bus with the young ones?

Speaker 17 (02:02:12):
On?

Speaker 19 (02:02:13):
What the sorry?

Speaker 2 (02:02:14):
What was that You're talking about driving a bus with
the youngsters? Kids?

Speaker 17 (02:02:17):
Were they?

Speaker 2 (02:02:17):
Were you talk about your family?

Speaker 14 (02:02:19):
Know?

Speaker 19 (02:02:19):
I was learning to drive. I thought I'd drive in
and picked my husband up off the bus, okay, And
I didn't even know how to back the car at
the time, So I had the neighbor's children and my
two children mine mine were one and two, and I

(02:02:39):
pulled it and waited for the bus and it never came.
So then someone told me that the tunnel had collapsed,
so I had to back out and drive back up
to where I lived, thinking, Oh, I'm just going to
get a shovel and yea or a spade, and I'm
going to go and help tick them out.

Speaker 2 (02:02:58):
You know that, Diane, did you know? Did you know
straight away that he had died or did you have
to wait for those days.

Speaker 6 (02:03:05):
To know that?

Speaker 17 (02:03:06):
No?

Speaker 19 (02:03:08):
I didn't know it took them a while to get
a tube through to find out what ha happened, you know,
and there was some of the guys were missing and
some injured, and we were all called into a room
and they just went through the different names, so and
so injured, so and so missing, so and so killed.

(02:03:31):
It was quite bizarre, really.

Speaker 2 (02:03:33):
I was three or was it three or four days
later that you found that outset.

Speaker 19 (02:03:38):
That it's quite I can't really remember. I know it
was a long time later, and I know that when
they found my husband, they wouldn't let anyone go and
get them out obviously, because you know, they thought someone
else could get hurt.

Speaker 12 (02:03:55):
But I was very young.

Speaker 19 (02:03:57):
I was twenty four and I had a baby of
one and two, so it was all new, you know,
to me.

Speaker 5 (02:04:06):
It was.

Speaker 20 (02:04:07):
It was horrible.

Speaker 19 (02:04:08):
It took a month to find his body, and and
of course I thought I'd go and make sure it
was him, and they said, oh no, you know, there's
there's no way you'll know it's him. So, yeah, we
were just a lot of the boys.

Speaker 12 (02:04:25):
I knew.

Speaker 19 (02:04:26):
We had lived with a few of the boys before
we moved out onto a farm, So yeah, it was
they used to elf used to come home and say, oh,
you know, it's been really hard going. There's been little
falls and we'd had to put our shoulder up and
get someone to get a bit of wood to prop
it up. And and another guy he didn't go to work.

(02:04:51):
We went to come up in the morning and he
said he wasn't coming in, and he said he had
a feeling something was going to happen, so he didn't
go in. Anyway, I just I just thought i'd bring
you up, tell you a bit about was like, was.

Speaker 2 (02:05:08):
It anger and blame and fault finding with all of that,
or was that not happening in those times? Not something
that happened. Anger about the fault of the collapse?

Speaker 5 (02:05:18):
Was there?

Speaker 2 (02:05:18):
You said about the propping stuff up and things that
it did. Was there anger about that from the families?

Speaker 19 (02:05:25):
Well, you know, it was pretty obvious that they were
they were using you know, I'm just saying what I heard. Yeah,
they were using second hand timber, and they weren't concreting
up to the faith.

Speaker 18 (02:05:41):
Yeah, so you know, I believe it was a negligence.

Speaker 2 (02:05:46):
Wow, and your kids were so young, they were they.

Speaker 19 (02:05:50):
Were and we were we were renting a little lap
out on a farm and and they gave me three
months to get out, and so Ministery were had to
find their house in Auckland to stay. And it was
it was horrible.

Speaker 2 (02:06:07):
It was a nightmare for how long was it a nightmare?

Speaker 19 (02:06:10):
Was well where you know, everyone was going up to
the to the workshop waiting to hear news, and it
was reeled off with no thought to how she had
affected anyone.

Speaker 11 (02:06:30):
So it was sort of surreal.

Speaker 19 (02:06:32):
And I can remember one of the boys said that
alf had been killed. He had a mess, a big,
big piece of whatever worn across his chest. So he
died immediately. And I can remember thinking, you know, and
when I was allowed to go up and talk through

(02:06:52):
the phone, you know, go and make sure time. I'm
sure you've got it wrong. So and then of course
it took a month to find his body, and he's
sort of thinking that time always going to come home.

Speaker 2 (02:07:05):
And did you then, did you then moved to Auckland?
That you moved? Is that we were living after that?

Speaker 19 (02:07:11):
I lived in that matter for another three months and
then moved to Auckland. And the boys that you know
I had been in the tunnel, they used to come
up moment lawns for me and you know, they were
really good and so we kept in touch for you know,
quite quite a number of years, and then it's sort

(02:07:32):
of taken off as the guys got married and and
you know, I think there was two of them living
in Auckland as well that we saw up to about
four years ago. Every anniverse three. But it's you know,
we've stopped now. I mean, it's like it's like I happened,
you know, another lifetime ago. So I now have a

(02:07:54):
daughter of fifty eight and the son of fifty seven.

Speaker 6 (02:07:58):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (02:07:59):
Yeah, that'd be right, wouldn't it. And they Yeah, and
how I suppose that, Yeah, when they themselves will be
affected there in ways too, won't they.

Speaker 19 (02:08:08):
Well yeah, you know they were very little obviously, but
you know, we we've always remembered that day. And I
remember one time we went down and we planted trees
and they had a memorial plank put up for them,
and the kids came down with me, and you know,

(02:08:30):
I've always talked about and they've still got the photos
from the hair old and and my son's got those.

Speaker 9 (02:08:38):
Oh.

Speaker 2 (02:08:38):
Well, I really appreciate you. I mean, it's funny that
it's funny, but this is the first time you've called
the radio. But jeep as creeper is what an extraordinary
thing to ring about?

Speaker 19 (02:08:47):
Well I just heard this. Yeah, ah, you know, should
I ring?

Speaker 2 (02:08:53):
And yeah, of course you should. You see you you
seem very resolved at all. You don't sound tragic about
the whole thing. You seem to have had.

Speaker 7 (02:09:05):
All that.

Speaker 2 (02:09:06):
Would that be fair to say that you've managed to
do that that you?

Speaker 19 (02:09:09):
Oh, look, I worked through a lot. I worked through
you know, it took a while work through.

Speaker 18 (02:09:16):
You know, lots of.

Speaker 19 (02:09:17):
Different things happen in people's lives. I've just got a
very rich tapestry and a very happy person at.

Speaker 2 (02:09:25):
The moment you sair, you sound like you sound.

Speaker 12 (02:09:28):
Like it.

Speaker 19 (02:09:31):
Anyway, Lovely talk, Yeah, lovely talk to.

Speaker 2 (02:09:33):
You too, Diane. I really appreciate you. Thank you so
very much for that. That was lovely to have a
chance to talk to you.

Speaker 3 (02:09:39):
Well.

Speaker 2 (02:09:39):
Yeah, blessed. Twenty nine away from twelve, eight hundred and
eighty to ten eighty, Looking forward to your calls. Look
there's lines there for it's twenty seven away from twelve.
If you do want to talk Tims along at midnight tonight.
I look forward to your calls. Yeah, well this is
just not a not not a complete different tact.

Speaker 11 (02:09:56):
But I do know.

Speaker 2 (02:09:57):
I don't worry, but I am aware that these days
you can go back and get copies of all the
newspaper articles online from when they've been placing newspaper stories online.
But it's very hard for me tonight to find a
lot of those stories from nineteen seventy. I hope you know.
It seems as though for a long time they are

(02:10:19):
all in the archives. But we don't have those rooms anymore.
I think everything should be online. I'm not quite sure
when all the papers will be put online so we
can sort those articles, but we'll seek out those articles.
But as I say, even I remember it fifty five,
fifty six years ago being a very big news story.

(02:10:40):
I remember it's something that you know that everyone was
talking about, was the people, and of course when you're five,
it seemed like I went on for a long long
time with that people talking about it. Anyway, if you've
got something to say about this or anything else, that
would be their plan for tonight before twelve o'clock, oh
eight hundred eighty ten eighty and nine two nine two
detects and obviously you're picked up. We are talking about

(02:11:04):
the Kaimi rail tunnel on the collapse that happened there
in nineteen seventy, which funnily enough, I have never talked
about because quite often every year there are anniversaries of
certain things. Was just happening to be on the internet
and there was on some obscure arcane website they had
that this happened this day, and was reading about that.
But yeah, so that's the plan if you want to

(02:11:26):
talk about that. There's been other stuff we've talked about
as well, and that's fine. And but yes, it was
a very happy of very hard free hard phone called
to follow that last one, because wow, you can just
imagine that, can't you, and going to meet the bus
as well. It's kind of amazing for me to listen
there and think, gosh, you must have known straight away.
But you know, these days, if something happened, you know

(02:11:47):
a Stralia with cell phones, it'll be texting, but you
probably wouldn't have known that the you know, it would
take a long time for the people to find out,
even in mutter mutter that the tunnel had collapsed. You
forget about that. There's those you know, it took once
upon a time it took time to find things out. Elizabeth,
it's Marcus. Good evening.

Speaker 15 (02:12:06):
Hello.

Speaker 22 (02:12:07):
Just about the car My Tunnel. Did anybody talk about
the surgeon who went down into the tunnel?

Speaker 2 (02:12:14):
No, Funnily enough, I was that was one of the
articles that I could see about. That was something I
did find when I was googling about that. That was
one of the articles I had read about today that
he was in one of the articles I did find.
And then he was at the hospital and sort of
became doctor Neil Alga. Is that the guy's name?

Speaker 22 (02:12:36):
Oh, well, Charlie Bellfield is the one.

Speaker 16 (02:12:38):
I'm okay, No, I don't know that.

Speaker 2 (02:12:40):
Then tell me about that he was.

Speaker 22 (02:12:43):
A very brave surgeon and he went down into the
car My tunnel to rescue any he called it, and
in some cases it might be to be amputate limbs
or aortever to get them out. But I don't know
much about how he got on down there, but I
just remember that he was brave enough to go down
and do what he could.

Speaker 19 (02:13:04):
To help people.

Speaker 2 (02:13:05):
What was his name, did you say, Elizabeth?

Speaker 22 (02:13:07):
From Charlie Bellfield?

Speaker 2 (02:13:09):
Okay? And was he a local guy?

Speaker 22 (02:13:10):
Was he he was at full time surgeon? At might
at a hospital.

Speaker 2 (02:13:14):
Okay, understand, Okay, I'll look into that. I do know
there was a guy that was there was a guy
that was inside the tunnel that that was given an
award for bravery that I think and one of the
interests the tunnel is named after him. But that was
a different story, so I will look up that one.
But thank you, Elizabeth. I haven't seen that yet, but yeah,

(02:13:35):
get in touch if you want to. Oh, eight hundred
and eighty ten ad and nine two nine two the
text we are talking about that if you want to
talk twenty three to twelve. So yes, oh, good text
nice texts, keep those going if you've got emails Marcus
at NEWSTALKSZ'DB dot co dot NZ.

Speaker 5 (02:13:53):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:13:54):
It's what I have been trying to look at is
information about how the rescue went. And what I do
know so far is that they must have got a
drilling company that came up from palmest North under police escort,
and they must have put a narrow pipe down firstly
and put a radio communication through and food, and then

(02:14:15):
they had a much wider half a meter wide pipe
that was banged through into it, I presume with a
person going up and down in a cart to get
the rocks that were crushed from out of it. And
after a number of hours, a number of days going
they got through to the people. I don't know what.

(02:14:35):
I guess that must have been a quicker way than
going through into the front of the side. I don't
quite know what that was about. There must have been
too much material had come down. Now, the other things
I can tell you is that they are filming the
fiftieth series of Survivor. Amazing, that isn't it that a
series would ask that long? Started in May two thousand
and two. You might remember that. Yeah, that's going to

(02:14:58):
be one of the most successful formats for Survivor for
reality TV. Yeah, there you go. I don't know if
we I don't know. I've watched some of those American
ones who said, I'm not quite it's not on.

Speaker 14 (02:15:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:15:13):
Richard Hatch won the first series and changed the way
the game was played forever. Just took its clothes off
and won freaked everyone out. Yeah, hello, Robin, it's Marcus.
Good evening.

Speaker 25 (02:15:24):
Yeah, hi, Marcus. I thought i'd just tell you what
I know about the time my tunnel. My dad was
a policeman. I've rung it before in Mathemeta at that time,
so he was one of the ones responsible for bringing
the bodies out. And only just I don't know, months ago,
I came across all these photos and they were the

(02:15:45):
photos that the police had for each person and where
they were found in the tunnel, and I thought, am
I going to do with these? And so I spoke
to the person on time Span or on Facebook, so
I said them to.

Speaker 2 (02:16:00):
Them and then I've had something to do with that woman.
She's very very.

Speaker 25 (02:16:03):
Good, Yes she is, so she said, no, I love
them so and then there was a photo of my
dad getting I don't know, shaking hands with somebody to
do with it. And so she's then contacted the New
Zealand Archives and they yes, they definitely wanted them, so
that's where they went to so they would so I

(02:16:26):
guess they'll come up on there at some stage. And
and then we lived at Cambridge when that plane went
in at Tierraw and my dad was also on that rescue.
So yeah, they were all sort of things that were
you know, when the tunnel happened at mad Matter. I
mean we just thought I was working and everyone knew
he sort of straight away. You know, it's a small town.

Speaker 2 (02:16:49):
Must have been because because what I what I've ascertained
earlier is that most people working in the tunnel lived there.
They weren't on the other side, they're living.

Speaker 25 (02:16:56):
Okay, Yes, everybody knew somebody, that's for sure.

Speaker 2 (02:17:00):
And certainly the biggest story that ever happened in that town,
isn't it. I mean that would that would really well,
they would have defined that because it was such a
It was a long story, wasn't it, Because it was
eighty hours, it was days to know.

Speaker 25 (02:17:12):
What would happen years because the body was not It
was not a good job apparently getting them out. And
I can remember my dad saying, you know a lot
of them were too superstitious to go in.

Speaker 2 (02:17:25):
There and health and yeah, was he affected just one
of those police when I was here affected by it?

Speaker 19 (02:17:34):
I don't know.

Speaker 25 (02:17:34):
You know, he's dead now, But I often thank Gosh
all the things that you sort of see, like in
a small town, there's always things that happened, and you know,
the crime eyes was people's trucks would go over the
edge and things like that.

Speaker 2 (02:17:49):
Those accents wouldn't there, and hunters go missing and all
sorts of stuff.

Speaker 25 (02:17:53):
Correct and so it must affect you in some ways.

Speaker 19 (02:17:56):
It must go are you still?

Speaker 2 (02:17:58):
Are you still a matter a mauntter of Robin? Is
that where you are? There was there was a caller
beforehand that was talking about He said there was something
about their working towards a museum, and I didn't really understand.
But you don't know anything about that the muse even matter?

Speaker 25 (02:18:11):
No, okay, no, but I did hear about that just
after I'd sent those photos off. But I just sort
of thought, what am I going.

Speaker 9 (02:18:18):
To do with it?

Speaker 2 (02:18:19):
It's hard when you get stuff in that because you
wanted to go to the right places where it's been appreciated,
because this history isn't it?

Speaker 25 (02:18:25):
Yes, that's right, but you said also it's a horrible thing,
so you don't know whether you do want it to sort.

Speaker 19 (02:18:30):
Of goa There was photos for.

Speaker 25 (02:18:33):
Each person and where they were found, with their names
and everything.

Speaker 17 (02:18:37):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:18:37):
No, I have had I have had a little bit
to do with that woman from Time Spanner, because she's
a historian's she's academically very rigorous, and she's every every
involvement I've had to do with it's been very very
satisfactory because she's she's free thorough and professional.

Speaker 25 (02:18:53):
Yes, no, she's great. She sent on a story from
perdo perfumes? Have you ever heard of them? I click
perfume bottles and they were in New Zealand company.

Speaker 2 (02:19:05):
You d eu Okay, I'll look that up.

Speaker 3 (02:19:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 25 (02:19:10):
And and you know she came back and said, you know,
do I have permission to do this? And their son
had written it for me for our club that's in
Australia and which is you know, it was quite interesting
and people seem to really there was a lot of
feedback sort of afterwards, people remembering it and stories that

(02:19:31):
went with it.

Speaker 2 (02:19:32):
So a perfume club or a history club or your club.

Speaker 25 (02:19:35):
Well, I'm perfume. My person bottles a couple of thousand.

Speaker 5 (02:19:40):
Yeah, I.

Speaker 2 (02:19:44):
Don't know that was a thing. Okay, so you've got
you've got that affliction, that obsession. Eh.

Speaker 7 (02:19:48):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (02:19:49):
I suppose the iNTS made it ten times worse.

Speaker 25 (02:19:52):
Well, yes and no, because it's very haimlesh. You can
get them in New Zealand, it's or you're traveling. It's
very hard these days to bring anything into New Zealand
because customs won't let it. And if it's got perfum,
because it's alcohol, they just confiscated.

Speaker 2 (02:20:06):
Here, mindful that I don't want to get freaked out
a run out of time.

Speaker 3 (02:20:11):
Where were they?

Speaker 2 (02:20:12):
Where were they based? And what was there? What local
material were they using?

Speaker 25 (02:20:17):
They they had their first shop in Shortland Street, then
they had one on His Majesty's okay sorry Queen's Kay
down the bottom of town, and then they had two
in Lawn Street.

Speaker 2 (02:20:30):
And were they was anything specifically in New Zealand about
them or they just copying?

Speaker 25 (02:20:35):
They did some native New Zealand would with a glass
and set for the tourist market.

Speaker 5 (02:20:41):
But he.

Speaker 25 (02:20:43):
Bought all the bottles in from France and they made
their own fragrance. He had he had recipes from somebody
in his family from a long time ago.

Speaker 2 (02:20:54):
Oh so he was he was French.

Speaker 25 (02:20:56):
No, he was actually English and she was in New Zealander.

Speaker 2 (02:21:01):
Well, why don't you a remarkably brave thing to go?
And did it? Successfully? It went?

Speaker 25 (02:21:08):
It was very successful up until you know, when all
the important tariffs take like you know, lots of companies
and and then slowly it just you know, it wouldn't
survive in this sort of market with the commercial from miss.

Speaker 4 (02:21:28):
Well.

Speaker 25 (02:21:28):
I suppose a lot of perfumes.

Speaker 16 (02:21:31):
Well, there's so many, so many.

Speaker 2 (02:21:33):
I'm going to read about that after Robin, So thanks
very much about that. That told her I never thought
of talking about that already googled, but that so thank
you so much to that and lovely to talk eight
away from twelve. Thanks for hanging on there, Roberts Marcus welcome.

Speaker 14 (02:21:47):
Hello Marcus, you've got another Robin on. I can remember remember.

Speaker 3 (02:21:52):
The day that the.

Speaker 14 (02:21:54):
Climite tunnel had their collapse. I was working at another
tunnel on the tongue were power development, the Po Dou tunnel. Yes,
And when the word came through that it happened to
shut down everything immediately and sent again of a crew
of guys over to assist with the rescue of the

(02:22:17):
people that were stuck underground.

Speaker 6 (02:22:19):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (02:22:20):
Yeah, And I don't understand that they put a metal
pipe down on an angle, and I can't quite work
at how they would have done that, but that must
have They must have quickly ascertained that was the right
thing to do. Yeah.

Speaker 14 (02:22:31):
What we did was the one of the engineers where
I was, he came across to the workshop where I was.
Where I was, I was running the workshop there looking
after all the plant and machinery, and he came across
from the door and he says, can you make up
one of these for us? And it was the bit
that went on the end of the war and pipe

(02:22:52):
and what they wanted to do was they wanted it
made up right there and then, and then they wanted
to try it. So we made it up. They tried it,
it was successful, and then that was rushed over to
Kimi and or back there. We went into the main
workshop in town which was touring, into the main welding shop,

(02:23:16):
and they manufactured up a much heavier one than we'd made.
We'd only made up one to as certain that it
was going to do the job that they wanted it
to do, and they made one in town and Touring,
and that was rushed over there, and that was the
start of the job to put the four inch pipe down.

Speaker 2 (02:23:36):
Indian remembering how they would have driven down the bigger pipe,
the much bigger pipe, the one meter the half a
meter damon, how would you bang that through?

Speaker 14 (02:23:44):
Probably putting air ham on it. It wasn't there. I
would see that.

Speaker 2 (02:23:49):
That would make sense to me.

Speaker 14 (02:23:50):
Yeah, it would have been air hammer on the on
the top of it, sitting on a sitting on a
frame and that would have all been manufactured and touring
and taken over there, so they.

Speaker 2 (02:24:02):
Would have had to work very quickly to do that.
And police there was a company called Robinson and Palmerston North.
Summon said as well. They had some drilling geared too
that was rushed up to use it to help out.

Speaker 14 (02:24:12):
Probably. Yes, I was on the side of the Podu
tunnel and we never left it, but there was a
lot other guys from the Podu Tunnel were sent straight
over there. There was no don't go home, just go
straight over to Kili. The us US put on and

(02:24:32):
they were there.

Speaker 2 (02:24:33):
Really appreciate your calling to thank you so much for that.
I'm out of time, Robin, but that's nice to talk
and thanks for those people that called to and I
shall return again tomorrow night. Tim's long next, but thanks
to everyone and for every moving for me to be
here for tonight. So yeah, appreciate that, and you guys
enjoy your Wednesday good night.

Speaker 1 (02:24:51):
For more from Marcus lash Nights, listen live to news
talks there'd be from eight pm weekdays, or follow the
podcast on iHeartRadio.