Winston Aldworth: Digging a hole

A bulldozer pulling swamp kauri from the ground in Northland. Photo / David Fisher

Days before we go to the polls, there can be few better metaphors for the way New Zealand's old economy is holding back our new one.

A digger in Northland whacked into the pipeline that supplies the aviation fuel which brings tourists to our shores.

Does it matter what the digger was doing? It could have been tearing swamp kauri from the ground or putting in place a trench to push cow's effluent into a once-pristine waterway - either way, an old-fashioned extraction industry just made it a little bit more expensive for visitors to fly into New Zealand.

Along the way, it scotched holiday plans for Kiwis looking to head offshore and made your next overseas flight a little more expensive too.