A multi-million dollar plan to construct a monorail across Fiordland has received the official backing of the Department of Conservation. The proposed 29.5 kilometre, six metre-wide monorail, travelling between Queenstown and Milford Sound, is part of a plan to boost tourism in the region, and would be the longest monorail in the world. (If you can't picture a monorail hurtling through the Fiordland high country, check this sweet artist’s impression.) Riverstone Holdings, controlled by the Wanaka-based property developer and millionaire Bob Robertson, is behind the plans, which – to get to the money – are predicted to cost about $20 million. Wait, $200 million – how silly of us.
DOC and the Hearing Commissioner have recommended that Conservation Minister Nick Smith approve the project, but the Minister is reserving judgement until he knows more about the impact it would have on the surrounding high country. Monorail commentator Lyle Lanley (pictured below) has dismissed concerns the monorail could be “awfully loud”, and that the “track could bend”. All we can say is, it just better have a damn good conductor. (And let us never forget the time Transport Minister Gerry Brownlee quoted the classic Simpsons episode – references to which have coloured the reporting of this item, for the unintiated – in Parliament.)