Backroomers
After graduating uni this year I am off to teach in New Zealand and was wondering if anyone has any experiences of motoring there? The only things that I have found out are that they give way to the right at all times (even on main roads if an oncoming person wants to turn right in front of you!?! - is that right?) and that most of the cars are ex-japanese models. Has anyone any experience of it at all?
Thanks in advance
Paul
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nz is as per the UK except when turning left off a main road, and there is a car comming towards you in the opposite direction turning right (ie in the same direction as you), then you are supposed to give way to them - although in practise this is flexible and doesnt always happen
yes lots of jap cars, and second hand jap cars are imported from japan which keeps the price of mx5's etc down
they have no idea at all about breaking distance, and will always drive an inch up your bum, and this is quite hard to get used to, but there isnt much you can do about it
even the biggest roads through auckland arent as busy as ours
lots of remote roads are not tarmaced, which can make for interesting driving
speed limits are mainly either 50 or 100 kmph, so you pretty much always know you are in one or the other, rather than lots of different limits we have, they do have mobile camera estate cars - but these are much more visible than our mob - and you wont loose your licence for minor speeding
petrol stations have attendants that will fill your petrol, you will get your windscreen cleaned or a free car wash with a full tank, and theyll offer to check your oil
and the supermarkets always fill your carrier bags for you
nice place, just miles from anywhere
some nice big open air swimming pools etc etc bla bla
(sorry brazil has probably worked there and will soon tell you more)
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Kia Ora - I have just returned from 3 months in NZ and hired cars to drive round both the North and South Islands. Yes, there is a rule of the road concerning giving way to cars turning right. I did not find this to be a problem as I was aware of it and carefully observed what other drivers were doing. You can sometimes see a solid white line across the road to indicate that traffic in the lane should stop and give way to oncoming right turners, but I noticed it most at traffic lights and major intersections. I did not experience any problem at all with this particular issue, there was some debate in the New Zealand Herald as to whether or not the rule should be changed due to high accident levels. I found driving in NZ to be very straightforward, the major problems being the almost complete lack of direction signs and parking can be a problem in city centres. Auckland in particular is very bad for both parking and traffic congestion. There is plenty of Japanese tin over there, they import directly from Japan with a higher proportion of the poorer quality vehicles not suitable for the UK. Interestingly the local Honda dealers actually offer warranties on imported models, and dont treat purchasers of such cars as low lifers. If hiring a car I found Apex rentals to be very good. A six day rental cost me around 100 pounds, and with petrol at 30 pence a litre and generally empty roads driving was a pleasure, especially the South Island. However as dual carriageways are very few and far between and the national speed limit is 100 km/h journey times can be slower than we might anticipate. Good luck, I hope you enjoy your visit as much as we did.
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Paul
If you want any "live" updates on the latest driving issues just say so, I have a friend who emigrated recently and his driving was never that confident so I am sure he will have noticed in horror at the sudden changes to his "style" he had to make.
Basically like the others said it is cheap, it is Jap and it is mostly free flowing. 50's Britain apparently sums it up (apart from the Jap of course)
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