Assorted Topic #1: Driving and Signage

One of the first challenges many people encounter in NZ is driving on the "wrong" (left) side of the road. The driver sits on the wrong (right) side of the car, but the steering wheel is still right in front of you, and the pedals are like normal (gas on the right). And you may have a big arrow sitting on top of your speedometer reminding you to "Keep Left". So basic travel down a road really isn't too bad ... but you can't really relax or you'll drift left in your lane and have the passenger off the edge of the road!

Other things are a bit tricky. Turns are a big challenge ... both knowing where to look for possible cross traffic and remembering which lane you are tuning into. My strategy is to frantically look everywhere ... including over my right shoulder when making a right turn! Fortunately, many intersections (at least on the South Island) are roundabouts. Once you get the hang of them, they actually work well and make things easier, because you only need to look to see if anyone is coming from the right.

Just as you think you've got it all figured out, you go to make a quick turn or pass someone and the windshield wipers turn on! That's because the turn signal lever and wiper lever are switched. Eventually, you remember most of the time ... but it's never second nature (at least for us during our 4-week trip).

And the little muscle-memory things get messed up, too. Like a 1-handed opening of a water bottle cap with the bottle in the center console. Right handed ... no problem. Lefty ... forget it. Or looking over your left (instead of right) shoulder when backing up! Maybe it's just hard to teach an old dog new tricks.

Most roads are 2 lanes, with many of them being on the narrow side of things. And they tend to follow the terrain closely, so are very windy going through the mountains that seem to be just about everywhere. More than a few times we'd be doing sharp hairpin turns for a half hour to an hour at a time! One lane bridges are common, but there's clear, consistent signage for who has the right of way. I guess they're more cost efficient, and still do the job in rural areas.

Every once in a while, in particularly mountainous areas (it seems), the road will narrow down to less than 2 lanes. And this will happen without significant warning ... perhaps a routine-looking sign indicating that the road narrows, and the center stripe disappearing. But it's a bit unnerving when you suddenly realize what situation you're in, that you didn't know it, and that it could have been ugly. Fortunately, we didn't meet any big vehicles coming the other way!

The most dangerous thing about the left-hand driving, though, is being a pedestrian. When crossing the street, it's very difficult to train your brain to look the correct way. Several times I found myself half way across, looking to my right ... only to look back to the left and see traffic bearing down on us. Again, my general approach was to look everywhere, and once it was all clear, almost run across the street.

All that being said, the road design was very well done and the signage was very clear and helpful. Curb bulbs in the middle of the road were used extensively to provide pedestrians a safe place half way across. We were never sure if pedestrians had the legal right of way ... but, from a practical perspective, not many drivers stopped for us while we were waiting to cross.