Cable running from US to Northland could bring end to NZ's slow internet

The ship helping to end all of New Zealand's slow internet woes docked in Auckland on Friday as the crew prepares to lay a new cable to Mangawhai.

The cable was due to land at Mangawhai Heads beach by Bream Tail Farm, about 800m north of the Surf Club, later this month.

It would bring much improved internet speed and significantly increase New Zealand's international telecommunications capacity when turned on in June.

The 15,000km cable would travel from Oregon, in the US to Sydney, Australia with landings in American Samoa and Hawaii - as well as Mangawhai Heads.

Hawaiki's NZ programme manager, Richard Howarth, said Hawaiki was very pleased and excited to finally be reaching the major project milestone.

Minister of Broadcasting, Communications and Digital Media Clare Curran toured the ship on Friday.

Speaking after the tour, Ms Curran said it was quite an exciting day for New Zealand.

"The cable is not completely laid yet and it hasn't gone live, but it's a concrete visualisation of something that has been an idea and a concept for a number of years.

"Our international connectivity is about to take a huge leap forward and this is about future-proofing New Zealand's economy."

Ms Curran said one of the merits of the cable was the resilience it provided going into the future.

"If there is a disaster in New Zealand and one of the cables gets cut, we know that we can still continue to do our business, and conduct activity with the outside world," Ms Curran said.

The CS Responder ship would lay the cable, which was armoured to protect it from trawling and adverse weather, in trenches along the sea floor.

The two-metre deep trenches are created by the Nereus 4, a $13-million piece of machinery manufactured in the United Kingdom.

Once on land, the cable would travel underground from under the sand dunes to the Cable Landing Station currently under construction on Cove Rd.

Hawaiki Chairman Sir Eion Edgar, who has been a key financial backer for Hawaiki Cable, was present at the tour.

Sir Eion said the cable was extremely significant for New Zealand because of the scale and the way it will increase capacity tenfold.

"It'll help keep prices down and obviously make it (the internet) a lot faster to deliver. I'm sure this will eventually bring the price of internet down - competition is a wonderful thing," Sir Eion said.

New Zealand should have much faster internet when the cable is turned on in June 2018.