Virgin New Zealand. From plunder to Wonder in 100 years.

What I would love to see begin. How about you? New Zealand makes a decision to begin investing in a new direction, giving the nation a goal and, with time, unity. Invest $100M per year from now until the end of the next century in the growth and development of our forest, a total of $10B in today's money, small bikkies over a century. My feeling is that as the project proceeded momentum would gather. We would be the great-grandmothers and fathers of a truly 22nd century wonder. My idea is to use mostly volunteer labour, invite international people to NZ to help, give them ownership too of a new world. Start cleaning up existing forested areas, but more importantly start developing new ones and enlarging the 'islands' of forest that exist now on the mainland to give visible proof of action. The birds, the ferns and the forest take over and we live off it's life through tourism, education, medical developements and so on. The final goal is a nation that devotes land to feeding itself, housing itself, transporting itself etc. Export ceases to be agriculturally based. Gradually business would change and adapt just as it has over the last 100 years and gradually our lives would adapt just as they have over the last 100 years. Dreams come from small beginnings, starting this dream would cost us a little but lose us nothing, beginning this road is the hardest part, driving over it as the years peal by would be easy, and the little ones will look back at those old pictures in their school books with wonder, and love, for those old people.