2004 for New Zealanders: Mike Breckon

Mike Breckon

This time last year, electrical engineer Mike Breckon was getting over the shock of a bomb blast which blew him off his chair as he sat down to dinner in Kabul.

The November 2003 explosion outside Breckon's hotel and subsequent brushes with terrorism failed to shake the 55-year-old's fascination with Afghanistan. He has made five further trips to help to restore the devastated country's fragile power supplies.

In July, when he told the Weekend Herald about a six-week trip tracing remnants of the old national grid, Breckon was optimistic about progress in Kabul, but apprehensive about the approaching presidential elections.

Exiles were returning to start new businesses and Kabul was in the grip of a building boom. But local warlords were not expected to accede to the extension of central government without a fight.

The election of Hamid Karzai, the country's first popularly elected leader, went smoothly in October but the resurgence of Kabul has brought its own challenges. Mid-year, residents were enjoying up to eight hours of electricity daily. When Breckon returned in November, homes and businesses were getting power for about four hours every second day. "It doesn't make living very pleasant."

The latest contract for his Newmarket-based employer, Maunsell, is to design a transmission line to complete Afghanistan's "missing link", a 250km line from Pul-e-khumri to Kabul, over the rugged Hindu Kush mountain range. It will allow power to be imported to Kabul from Afghanistan's northern neighbours, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.

The project has national priority status but is expected to take two years. "There are not that many transmission lines in the world at such very high altitude. The air is so thin the line needs special design features."

There is also the danger of avalanches. "As it goes through mountains and minefields, you can only do the construction in summer."

With deep snow and cold ruling out further progress until February, Breckon spent Christmas in Kohimarama with wife Prue and adult children Sarah, 25, and Adrian, 23. They planned a New Year's cruising holiday at Great Barrier Island in their 11m yacht Option One.

"I try to spend a couple of days away. But the countries we work in don't celebrate Christmas so you can expect to be available the whole time by cellphone or laptop."

Breckon has worked for more than 20 years on development agency contracts in global troublespots. In the past year he has also been to Uzbekistan, Cambodia, Vietnam, China and the Philippines.

He says Prue has "got used to" his wanderlust but he concedes he's stretched things a bit in the last year. "She's desperate to come up [to Afghanistan]. I had her booked in October but we had to cancel."

That was after a bomb explosion half a kilometre from where Breckon was working killed five people. "We certainly felt it. We had to lie low for a couple of days after that."

He says American forces are still hunting in eastern Afghanistan for Osama bin Laden. "Every now and then there's a glimmer of news but I don't think they'll ever find him. It's very rugged country - there's plenty of places to hide."

But terrorist incidents are receding. In October, he was with a Filipino team who negotiated the release of three hostages unharmed. "It was really moving; everyone was jubilant.

"Every time I go back I see an improvement. It's definitely moving forward but there's still a way to go with electricity.

"The people are so enthusiastic and that's what makes it worthwhile."