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The project is literally "groundbreaking" because it relies on holes drilled deep into the schist bedrock of Fiordland. Instead of water falling over a dam, the water falls straight down 8 drilled tubes at the edge of Lake Manapouri to reach the turbines, which spin the generators seen here in the massive underground equipment room. A truck access tunnel spirals down through the mountain to get here, almost as low as sea level. Nearly-horizontal tunnels take the water from the turbines out to Doubtful sound, about 20 km away. The project took nearly 15 years to complete.

The project is literally "groundbreaking" because it relies on holes drilled deep into the schist bedrock of Fiordland. Instead of water falling over a dam, the water falls straight down 8 drilled tubes at the edge of Lake Manapouri to reach the turbines, which spin the generators seen here in the massive underground equipment room. A truck access tunnel spirals down through the mountain to get here, almost as low as sea level. Nearly-horizontal tunnels take the water from the turbines out to Doubtful sound, about 20 km away. The project took nearly 15 years to complete.