In this week’s edition . . .

The further one travels the harder it gets

It's the plight of regional New Zealand that even our national highway becomes something of a goat track the further you get from the main centres.

This slow descent into roading irrelevance is a journey in itself — quite literally — but one we've taken in this week's edition.

It's pretty stark if you've just returned from somewhere like the Gold Coast — you've driven the eight-lane highways to Brisbane Airport beside other clone-like motorists, everyone somehow sticking to the speed limit like a hive mind. Very unsettling for a Kiwi.

Arriving in Auckland there aren't quite as many lanes to choose from but heading out of town you have the welcome sight of a multi-lane highway that stretches all the way past Hamilton, gradually reducing to two lanes each way. If you pick your time right, it's a dream run for about an hour and a half.

Then the dream is over, spoilt motorists and uninitiated tourists are dumped unceremoniously on to two lanes of opposing traffic travelling at high speed. The passing lanes become fewer and farther apart until you are winding through the hills south of Tokoroa, following trucks and cars stuck behind trucks, everyone jockeying for position and amped at the rare chance to gain a few places in the queue.

The township of Taupō is a welcome respite with its wide bypass or the alternative, slower scenic route through Wairakei that roughly follows the Waikato River to its source.

It pays to adopt a holiday mindset travelling through this town and then it's onwards towards Tū rangi where at one point there is barely enough room for two trucks to pass each other along the lake's edge.

We are about as far away from the main centres as you can get at this point so it seems there's no use complaining, no matter how many trucks or cars disappear into the clear, blue waters of Lake Taupō .

It's a numbers game and another highway to bypass this narrow section of road has been considered and discarded for reasons of cost, landowner sensitivity and environment.

More detail is being sought from Waka Kotahi about just what exactly has been considered to remedy this section of highway and other trouble spots further south.

We really do need to know what the options are so we can discuss it as a community, so watch this space.

daniel.hutchinson@nzme.co.nz