Vodafone will be laying the Raglan end of the new Tasman cable today (Friday 31st) on Ngarunui beach. The work is expected to take about two days depending on the swell size.
MV Tranquil vessel is in Whaingaroa for the work. Three kilometres will be pulled in, then connected to manhole. The other end will be dropped off at sea until large ASN vessel lifts it, connects it on board and rebury –it may be possible to view this online in October on the internet.
https://www.vodafone.co.nz/press-release/usd-70-million-submarine-cable-project-underway-in-raglan/
http://istart.co.nz/nz-news-items/trans-tasman-cable-project-kicks-off-in-raglan/
The 2,300km length of cable is comprised of two fibre pairs, and will have a total capacity of 20 terabits per second. By comparison, at launch the SX cable had a capacity of 20 gigabits per second, with subsequent upgrades over the years bringing its ‘capacity potential’ above 12 terabits per second.
When I looked, about half an hour ago, they had a digger on the beach, but no hole. They also had the main access to the beach closed. I thought I recalled that they said there would be no closing of access, or was that only no closing of the beach?