The generator room showing six of the seven generators.
The visitors gallery from the generator floor. Note the unlined rock walls.
Highlight of our South Island trip was a visit to the Manapouri underground hydro electric power station located in the wilderness fjiordland area of South West NZ. The Station is located 213 metres below ground level beneath a mountain. A launch trip takes visitors across the lake where a bus is boarded which takes you down a 2km long spiral tunnel to the power house. The station and tunnel were blasted out of solid rock and are unlined except for a protective mantle across the ceiling of the machine room itself. It was an eerie and awesome experience to be seemingly �deep inside the bowels of the earth�. Like most of New Zealand the mountain range lies on tectonic plate boundaries and is subject to continuous tectonic plate activity which uplifts the mountain range around 10mm (3/4 inch) each year. Don�t know what I would have done had I felt an earthquake down there?
The generator room showing six of the seven generators.
The visitors gallery from the generator floor. Note the unlined rock walls.