So I've spent the past few days driving my 17-year-old son from Auckland to Wellington to install him in a university hostel. He's starting a three-year degree at Massey. The little one has left home. This is Day 2 of his independence. No phone call. He must be doing OK. Or dead. Either or, it's his problem now.

But the road trip gave me an extended chance to check the North Island's infrastructure.

We took the long way because you don't do these things often. So here's my observations.

The Waikato expressway is amazing. Well the completed bits are. However the absence of a motorway through Hamilton is a shocker. A bypass is on the way but Hamilton that's a fail. Why weren't you planning for the future?

All was good until Taupo and then we hit the Taupo/Napier road. Beautiful road but that's when we hit the super trucks. Hogging the single lane carriageway. Often exceeding their speed limit. It was worse from Napier to Woodville. The dependence on trucks, the railroading of railways and the lack of capable roads make those roads a killer. And I have one friend who nearly lost both her parents on that road to a truck.

Wellington was more clogged, even in the weekend, than Auckland. It's like no-one thought people lived and worked south of the Beehive. Which is where everyone works.

We witnessed the full horror of the Island Bay cycleway. What used to be a broad safe boulevard now a skinny deathtrap.

Coming North we checked out the new MacKays to Peka Peka expressway. 630 million for 18 kilometres of rolls royce grade road. It's beautiful. So beautiful that Otaki MP Nathan Guy promptly said he wants 2 billion to extend it to Levin. Even though South of MacKays is about the worst roading on State Highway 1.

Coming through Hamilton again, I saw Diesel Locomotives parked under overhead electrification. What a waste of money that project was since we lost the courage to carry through.

Arriving home I discovered the $1.4 billion Waterview tunnels will be immediately congested, need traffic lights and have insufficient ventilation because of some misguided cost cutting. It's the four lane Harbour Bridge all over again. What a cock up.

So here's where I'm at. When we get it right it's lovely but half that journey was a nightmare. Huge trucks on tiny roads. Rail nobbled. I saw 1 freight train in the whole 4 day journey. Massive roads but not built in the right order. Ridiculous cost cutting in some places. Massive over-spending in others. It's a hotch potch. It's actually a national shame up there with leaky houses. We can't get infrastructure right. It's a big part of the housing crisis. Probably the biggest

This week National mooted an Urban Development Authority. I'd like to moot a non-partisan, nationwide, expert and practical Infrastructure Development Authority to come up with a 50 year plan that actually works. Because at the moment politicians, both local and national, have made pretty much a pigs ear of the job.