AC to DC current and power

[RODALCO]

Rodalco;
I had read somewhere that there are plans to connect both the north and south islands with a UHV DC link.... is that correct?

Correct, A DC link has been in place since the early 1960's, one of the first ones in the world. It was upgraded from 500kV dc to 700 kV dc a few years ago. The ASEA mercury arc rectifiers were replaced with solid state.
Capacity is around 1200 or 1800 MW. of memory.
The OH bipolar line runs from Benmore SI to Hayward's NI.