Driving in New Zealand

[roothy123]

After talking to a neighbor who lived in Australia, my husband is a little hesitant to rent a car in several locations in New Zealand.  The neighbor says that the roads are not great, although I don't know the exact reasons, and what assumptions were made (driving in the evening, driving in certain areas, etc.)   I was thinking of renting a car in Dunedin, and possibly in Napier.  It also looks like we'll have to jump through some hoops because Cathay Pacific cancelled a flight with no decent rebooking options.  One possible solution would be to rent a car and drive from Tauranga to Auckland.  The distance is supposedly around 3 hours.  There is a bus (Inter-City bus line) so that might be a better choice for us, but for the other two cities, we'd love to have the flexibility of going where we want to go.  Most likely, the amount of driving we would do would be limited to 3 hours round trip (return).

 

So, can anyone comment on New Zealand roads outside Dunedin or Napier, and between Tauranga and Auckland?  I'm not talking about in the cities themselves, which I assume would be fine, but outside.  We would drive during daylight hours. 

 

Also, is Australia much different?  We'd love to rent a car in Melbourne and Burnie (Tasmania) to go a little ways out into the countryside.  

[possum52]

The roads out of Melbourne are highways or freeways mainly. Where are you thinking of going? 

 

Leigh

[roothy123]

I believe the city is Queenscliffe, so over west, then south to Geelong, down to Queenscliffe and around there  I assume the roads are pretty good going there, but for some reason my husband is not totally sure he wants to drive in NZ and Australia!  I suppose I could go on Google Earth and preview the roads... 

[Chiliburn]

37 minutes ago, roothy123 said:

I believe the city is Queenscliffe, so over west, then south to Geelong, down to Queenscliffe and around there  I assume the roads are pretty good going there, but for some reason my husband is not totally sure he wants to drive in NZ and Australia!  I suppose I could go on Google Earth and preview the roads... 

Compared to the US the roads are not so good but they are not goat tracks.

Many Americans hire cars in Australia and NZ and go home happy.

 

A bit more information on your husbands driving skills and age would help.

 Does he drive much ,catches the train everyday or is professional truck driver.

 I f he is a confident driver he won’t have a problem .

we see people who catch the train for most of the year and holiday time they want to drive across the country. And they just don’t have the skills.

[possum52]

The road to Geelong is a multi lane freeway and the road from Geelong to Queenscliff is a dual lane highway each way. Both good roads. Another alternative to travelling to  Queenscliff is to drive south from Melbourne to the Mornington Peninsula town of Sorrento and catch the ferry across Port Phillip Bay (it is quite narrow there) to Queenscliff. 

 

Queenscliff is a small historic town with a population of about 1300 which of course soars through the summer holidays. My great grandfather was the lighthouse keeper there during the late 1890s.

 

Leigh

 

 

 

[GradUT]

A lot of the roads in NZ are two-lanes (with one-lane over bridges), but they are well-maintained.  We have driven in NZ (including around Napier and Dunedin) many times with no problem.

 

If your husband is a confident driver who can drive on the left, then he should also have no problem driving in NZ.

 

And FWIW, we lived in Australia and drove all over the country.  It is even easier than NZ. 

[buchhalm]

NZL roads are usually not bad. 

Off course, often quite rural as soon as you are out of the cities.

What you should be mindful of, are the speed limits and sneakily hidden mobile speed cameras. Even in the middle of Hobbit country, on the back of trucks. 

[Kiwi Kruzer]

This may be helpful ,if you have not already seen it...

 

https://www.backpackerguide.nz/12-safe-driving-tips-for-new-zealand/

[roothy123]

Thank you, everyone, for the help.  I think this is something we can handle.  My husband has driven different ways (left, right, shift, auto) and he does a great job, so hopefully he'll do well in NZ.

  

[Host Bonjour]

On 9/20/2019 at 8:21 AM, buchhalm said:

NZL roads are usually not bad. 

Off course, often quite rural as soon as you are out of the cities.

What you should be mindful of, are the speed limits and sneakily hidden mobile speed cameras. Even in the middle of Hobbit country, on the back of trucks. 

 

This was the only thing my farmer friends weren't keen on (and possibly sounds like what the neighbor might have been thinking about?) was visitors managing with some of the trickier parts of rural driving, which to be honest, unless you've done that kind of driving, would be a bit daunting. Curvy, narrow roads with blind turns on inclines and indeed, some rather long one lane bridges where you may end up having to back up across the bridge because the other driver is further over. There's an etiquette for it...I wouldn't know it. I can do Midtown Manhattan in the middle of the day or the Brooklyn Queens Expressway and tractor trailers, buses, whatever, none phase me though I don't love two plus hour traffic non-sheep related traffic jams. I wouldn't ever try rural NZ, Scotland, or anything similar. Not the left side, no standard tranny.

 

My friends said  from time to time, there were mishaps on the road, likely from people who did overestimate their ability or perhaps some city slicker like me, only they weren't willing to accept their limitation as a maybe an awesome parallel parker but not great on rural roads. Honestly, it looked dicey sometimes. So did sheep traffic, but that was on the farm. 😉

 

The roads were wonderful, seemed new and not unlike roads...anywhere else. It's just, I think, at times...somewhat unexpected because probably unlike here or elsewhere in the world where they just leveled or cleared out whatever was needed to make a road, in NZ things were left in place and they didn't blast things up. If it was a little road in some places, seems they left it that way because in New Zealand, it's just so unbelievably beautiful, I'm sure it was impossible to even consider clearing away a few ferns for another metre, so that another horse could be added to pull a cart. It would just have to take longer to get there. 

 

If you're driving over Arthur's Pass and haven't ever driven at high altitude before, be mindful you may feel a bit woozy...I did. Didn't bother me when I drive up Pikes Peak in Colorado...go figure. I was NOT driving but a passenger in the back seat. On the return trip I was sleeping and so I didn't notice. 

 

Have a wonderful time in Australia and New Zealand. No place like it on earth. 🙂