North Canterbury earthquake

Or perhaps reinstate the old 'Christchurch to Nelson Road' http://mapspast.org.nz/?zoom=13&x=1597812&y=5310199&layerid=NZMS13%201919

Depending on which section of State Highway 1 is more trashed, I think for the short to medium term the main focus will be to reinstate Seddon to Kaikoura and then direct traffic to the Inland Kaikoura Road which is currently being worked on. I don't think the govt will be so interested in getting the rail link reinstated since it wasn't running at a profit was it? The Inland Kaikoura Road will need to be upgraded for freight trucks but if you think like a politician, more trucks on roads is a win-win for treasury.

""By 11am today (16/11/16), there had been almost 300 magnitude-4 earthquakes and 43 magnitude-5 earthquakes. Along with the original magnitude-7.5, there have also been two earthquakes larger than magnitude-6.""

Barely feeling any of them now, I quite like earthquakes so missing the aftershocks.

Short term the inland kaikora is easier to fix and it reaches more isolated comunities. It will be a pig of a road if truck are allowed to use it in any quantity and I suspect there are a few load limited bridges. Not to mention the one lane ones. I cant see that road being bought to SH1 standard although it might be fun trying. Molseworth and pretty much every other option gets up to 2500 meters so expect it to close in every winter southerly Its probably got snow on it now. There is a back road around the hills at Ward Ive done it once after a crash on the real road and dont desire to see it becoming a main route. Not much to get round the Hunterlys though and the coastal section. If the road is still under the slips it could be saved but if its not then transmission gully starts looking a bargin

I had a look at the Molesworth Rd and it gets up to around 1140m at Wards Pass. The Upper Awatere is blocked at Camden Station at the moment. I think Island Pass is the highest public road in NZ at around 1165m by the looks of it.

The Nevis road is apparently 1275m

Yes. And closed Queens B'day to labour weekend. Not ideal as a SH1 alternative!

Somewhere appears to be missing ?. http://modernsurvivalblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/map-of-new-zealand-deep-earthquakes-273x300.jpg .... and I'm looking West.

A news post on geonet a couple of years ago wondered the same thing. In the meantime I done think Timaru will be such a nice place to retire after all