With particular regard to Kaikoura's problem of its uplifted seabed, the solution is so simple, it's somewhat ludicrous that the politicians who have looked at it, haven't worked it out yet. There is a blocked road between there and Cheviot that needs clearing of hundreds of tons of rock. There are machines sitting around idle in Kaikoura and people who could do with a job. With a little bit of application, all that rock could be used to build an absolutely brilliant harbour, thus killing two problems with many stones to get the whale watching back on track. Anybody who decries this should think again. The South Island has truly magnificent roads purely because it has such ample supplies of shingle. England has some of its best little harbours in the world, again because of its ample rock supplies. Here is a marvellous opportunity for Kaikoura to do the same. Just keep the bureaucrats away.

R McGuinness, Tauranga City.