There's nothing that engineers and a little mustered willpower can't achieve these days. Think of the benefits - instead of a three-hour flight to Sydney, you could drive there in 19 hours, travelling at 100kmh non-stop.
I've looked at all the options and my preferred build would be from Haast heading northwest for 1895km and joining up with the Sydney Harbour Bridge for the final stretch. A bridge or tunnel from the entrance to Milford Sound to Sydney would actually be shorter, only about 1865km, but more difficult to access for many Kiwi motorists.
Nobody is disputing the price-tag will be fairly hefty. My calculations put it at somewhere between $1.086trillion and $1.105trillion. But none of the people I've talked to about it - the Transport Minister, National's transport spokeswoman, engineers, NZTA and the like - shot the proposal down in flames outright. Judging by the looks on their faces, they admired my vision.
Not all of my colleagues were as supportive, however. One scoffed and asked if I'd seen the online story a few days ago about a bridge or tunnel across Cook Strait. I said, pah, sounds like a pipe-dream to me.
If we ever, ever have enough spare money to build anything of this sort across one of the world's most ferocious seas, we would be better off spending it on relieving child poverty, improving our health service and hospitals, and building better houses.
Breakfast television
I must stop watching early morning television. All it did yesterday was irritate me.
On TVNZ 1's Breakfast, weather reporter Matty McLean was visiting Dunedin. Co-presenter Jack Tame crossed to him standing in front of the ``railway station''. Matty was quick to correct him and explain it was the University of Otago clocktower. To be fair, it's probably not the first time anyone has made that mistake.
But then Matty was talking to members of the ``Gold Puckers'' ice hockey team from Yukon, here for the Masters Games. Their spokesman said it had warmed up from -36degC to -32degC back home. That probably prepared them ``pretty well for the Dunedin weather'', Matty said.
What? Grrrrr. I must stop being so sensitive.
Nick Loughnan of Galloway in Central Otago reports he was outside on Tuesday afternoon when he heard ``an unusual squawking chatter'' and looked up to see a fledgling pair of blue herons landing on the chimney flue.
``They may not be recognisable to many readers, but I have seen them flying around together for the last couple of weeks, having recently left their nest and together finding their way in the world.
``They look to be doing OK, despite their clumsy landing on the flue, as they both had full crops. After five minutes of us looking at each other, and having time to race inside to grab my camera, they gave a few leggy poses before taking off.
``Blue herons are probably New Zealand's most graceful bird in flight, with long and slow, sweeping wingbeats. There is something gloriously ancient about the look of them on the wing and their primal call sounds fully prehistoric.
``We are fortunate to have a great habitat for many bird species here in Galloway, and these two will hopefully make themselves at home around the fringes of our creeks where the pickings are good.''
The `green thing'
Cromwell's Mark Pettinger enjoyed the mocking piece on Wednesday about environmentalism in the olden days.
``I couldn't agree more,'' he says. ``I really don't know where our planet is heading, with all of the throwaway stuff we have these days.
``Just look at the thousands of plastic bread bags thrown out each day in the world. `Back in our day', bread came in a paper bag. We would collect the bread on the way home from school.
``If it was a quarter or half loaf with no crust on one end, it became lighter as we walked home for some reason and by the time we reached the gate half of the inside was missing, and mother was not at all happy. Mind you, we didn't eat so much tea, which would be a saving.
``The bags were saved and used to crank up the coal range to heat the kitchen and warm baths.''
Thanks Mark. Though I have to admit buying sliced bread is a lot easier than risking fingers with a bread knife.