The Italian Connection (Nelson/Marlborough) Traditional Geocache
eraserman: It's time to put this one to rest.
The Italian Connection (Nelson/Marlborough)
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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An interesting manmade feature up a valley not far from suburbia. Track is well formed all but the last 100 meters or so. An easy 5 minute walk each way.
This tunnel was commissioned in 1938 after only 2 years to construct using a main crew of Italian tunnellers and some local labour. It runs from the Roding river dam under the hill to Marsden Valley It is dead straight at 135 chains or 2.71 kms long with a slight fall. This fall from 600 ft at the dam to the Marsden Valley gave enough head of pressure without the need for pumps to supply Stoke and the hill areas of Tahunanui, Stoke and the city in the earlier days. The Brook scheme supplied the rest of the requirements until the Matai Dam was built in the 70’s.
Originally there was a 12” water main but this was later upgraded to a 18” main which can supply up to 20,000 cubic meters of water a day but usually about 10,000 cubes a day are sent through. This now is sent to the water treatment plant up the Tantragee.
This is a closed and strictly controlled tunnel with no access to the public. It is regularly inspected, both the water main and the tunnel, and has a carriageway most of the way through for a type of wheeled jig to travel on. It has some concrete and wood reinforced sections along the way but is mostly as it was when originally dug out of rock 70 years ago.
If you wish to see the Roding Dam end of the tunnel, why not head over to my WATERCATCHER cache. Stop and talk to the caretaker, he is a wealth of information about the general area.
The cache is a 200 ml camped container with waterproof paper and a pencil.
Gps coverage was poor on the day the cache was placed but still should not be too hard to find if using the hint.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Ng gur obggbz evtug bs ragenapr