The whole world is watching us

By STAFF REPORTERS

As the last hours of the millennium tick away, New Zealand is the focus of world attention to see how we cope with Y2K problems.

All eyes will be on the Y2K Readiness Commission which will give be providing the international community with vital information as New Zealand becomes the first country to cross from the old millennium into the new.

The commission will be post reports from midnight on its website and it will also feed information directly to the International Y2K Cooperation Centre in Washington via modem.

One area of special interest will be how our hospitals cope.

Gary Henry, general manager of National Women's Hospital in Auckland, said New Zealand hospitals were the millennium "guinea pigs" and hospitals around the world were monitoring them for possible problems.

All key management staff would be at their posts, although he was confident of a trouble-free night.

Helicopters are on standby, leave for staff in key industries has been cancelled and Transpower has a multimillion-dollar emergency plan in place to cope with a Y2K bug meltdown.

Even the country's biggest lift operators, Kone, Otis and Schindler, have pooled resources and agreed to share a list of key service people in case their own workers cannot cope with an emergency.

Telecom has spent about $100 million making sure it is ready for Y2K, with 300 staff working on the project since 1996.

Tonight an extra communications centre will be running, with extra staff also on call.

Oil companies have brought in satellite phones and generators for emergencies.

BP spokeswoman Jane Diver said generators had been supplied to some stations in case a power shutdown stopped pumps working. Other stations had been told to close if the lights went out.

Tonight is also the culmination of more than a year's work for about 100 people who will gather in the Beehive at Parliament to monitor any effect of the Y2K bug.

About 50 people will be directly assigned to "bug-watching" in the Beehive banquet hall. A further 50 staff will be two floors beneath the building, ready to oversee any disaster response, Y2Krelated or not.

Utilities and emergency services around the country will feed information to the national monitoring centre, which will pass it on to a high-powered committee of civil servants charged with coordinating any Government response.

In Auckland, officials are worried that there will be a traffic gridlock tonight if thousands of people try to drive to the inner city for celebrations.

Mayor Christine Fletcher said organisers wanted to encourage as many people as possible to attend the free events, but partygoers should leave their cars at home and use public transport.

Stagecoach is providing extra buses that will travel routes designed to cater to people attending the big free events in the Domain and at Aotea Square and Okahu Bay.

Inspector Derek Davison, who is charge of policing in Auckland tonight, said: "We just cannot cope with thousands of cars. If we get to the gridlock stage, people just won't get through to these venues."

All available police officers would be on duty tonight, he said.

"People will see blue uniforms on street corners where they have not been seen since the 1960s."

Organisers have also addressed safety concerns at the youth-oriented First Night Auckland 2000 concert in Aotea Square by designating the area alcohol and drug-free.

Traffic volumes were two to three times heavier than normal on the Napier-Wairoa Highway last night as visitors headed up the East Coast for tonight's millennium celebrations in Gisborne.

At traditional New Year's Eve haunts, revellers started drinking and getting into trouble early.

Whangamata police have made 62 arrests in the past three days - mostly for breaching liquor bans.

After a week of good behaviour in the popular summer spots of Mt Maunganui and Tauranga, police are now being kept busy with increasing numbers of petty crimes.

In the 24 hours to yesterday morning, 13 people were arrested in Tauranga and 10 at the Mount for disorderly behaviour or breaching liquor bans.

Mount police also dealt with a drunken beachfront brawl, but no charges were laid.

MetService weather ambassador Bob McDavitt said a frontal rain band from the Tasman Sea should hit Auckland today, but the rain was expected to clear by tonight.

The weather looked better for Gisborne, he said, and dawn watchers should get a reasonably clear view of the sun coming up on the southeastern horizon.

Any rain in the North Island would be mild.