Tourists driving in the South Island

[Swoop]

...we need to prove drifting skills to avoid all the sheep which roam wild.

Especially when those fuckers are white and blend in with the snowy background... especially hard to see. Even more so on Queen St.

[scumdog]

Aside from one time where I was drifting in the snow, and a sheriff had a chat with me. I convinced him that it snows 11 months of the year in Auckland, and we need to prove drifting skills to avoid all the sheep which roam wild.

I convinced a Canadian cop that as my Caddy speedo was in miles-an-hour in Canada had kilometres which we didn't have in NZ I had not idea how fast 80mph was.

[madbikeboy]

Especially when those fuckers are white and blend in with the snowy background... especially hard to see. Even more so on Queen St.

Holy Fuck! That's such a good point, I should have thought to bring up the point of the camouflaged sheep. 10 points and some bling headed your way.

[madbikeboy]

I convinced a Canadian cop that as my Caddy speedo was in miles-an-hour in Canada had kilometres which we didn't have in NZ I had not idea how fast 80mph was.

I was riding a Hayabusa on the 5 in LA, it was owned by a guy who liked spending money on go faster bits - anyhow, I was riding the fucking thing, giving it death, thinking, "this isn't so fast, my thou is much faster to 160". Then I twigged that the speedo was in MPH. Oops. Point is, that speedo thing works both ways.

Did you explain that you were the Sheriff of Nottingham/South Island, and once you did the secret cop handshake, did he let you off?

[Metastable]

Ya man dunno what to tell you guys. It would be a PIA if I had to take a test just to drive in New Zealand. I think that would alienate a lot of visitors. Having said that, I did see a lot of tourists doing stupid $#!T. Most of the locals seemed to be pretty decent drivers.... my only pet peeve were the ones who didn't understand lane discipline on multi lane highways. However there aren't many of those to begin with..... and the same thing happens in Canada.

To be honest there isn't a short flight to get to New Zealand from anywhere. I do think they should run a mandatory driving INFO session.... while on the plane. Before I went there I read up on Kiwi rules of the road, road signs and even came in here and asked questions.... like what is the typical speed people travel at if you're posted at 100kph. I figure you might as well try to do what the locals do..... that's the safest way to go. Furthermore, before heading to NZ I was fortunate enough to drive a fair bit in South Africa and the Cayman Islands, which also drive on the left. Having said that, I highly doubt many visitors think about this too much.

I'd venture to guess the biggest problem with North American drivers would be: Road Signs, Traffic Circles (especially signalling), and Road Markings.... not to mention ghost driving on the wrong side of the road.... oh and for many, they aren't use to corners either.

Drivers from China and India..... dunno where to start, but they seem to have difficulty around these parts too. As mentioned... it is SO different, that it just becomes dangerous. We were at Yellowstone last year. They give out all sorts of material saying DO NOT GET CLOSE TO THE ELK AND BUFFALO, many people are seriously injured. There are signs everywhere and meanwhile you see tourists taking pictures about 10m away!!! Dunno - it isn't just common sense while driving... maybe some tourists just don't have common sense.

Anyway - loved my visit to NZ and enjoyed driving on both the North and South Islands. Maybe going during the southern hemisphere winter helped reduce my encounter with other tourists.

[Metastable]

Yes, you can rock up and rent a car, bike, woman, goat, or horse in China. Driving in China sucks. Almost as bad as India. India is crazy. Italy is crazy, but at least all the Italian women are hot (except any Italian women over the age of 23, they've got hairy lips and more chins than a Chinese phone book). The Netherlands is a good place to drive. Germany too (except for the fucking Polizi). France rocks because they love bikers. Canada is nice to drive in, because Canadians are really nice. You can die of boredom and old age driving across the flat bits. Sweden sucks to drive in (they're all called Sven and they all drive Volvos at 3 kph under the speed limit). The US is awesome to drive in. I used to set my cruise control in the Exploder at 99 miles an hour, and I got stopped basically never. Aside from one time where I was drifting in the snow, and a sheriff had a chat with me. I convinced him that it snows 11 months of the year in Auckland, and we need to prove drifting skills to avoid all the sheep which roam wild.

Worst place ever to drive? India. Them's fuckers are cray cray.

Dang that's pretty accurate! I didn't find Italy too bad, especially if you get out of the city areas. Brazil is like Italy but a bit more aggressive and you see some crazy stuff there like a dude standing up on the back of a ute holding up a fridge with no tie down straps, while the ute is going 100kph down the highway. The French do love motorcycles.... they move over and give you tons of room to pass when you are on a bike. It is almost to the point of absurdity..... but riding in France is tops (at least it was in Southern France near the Spanish border). The speed limits in the western US are typically very reasonable.... especially Montana, Idaho (now 80mph), Utah (also has 80mph stretches), Texas even has 85mph in one section...etc. The best drivers however IMO are around the North Carolina, Georgia area.... the worst in Ohio, Michigan, New York and other states towards the North/East. Best drivers in Canada are in Quebec... they tend to be the most aggressive too, but they pay attention.... the worst are probably in British Columbia ... maybe because they are a bit....

[Murray]

But theres been a truck accident, fire, rolled everyday for the past 7 days - wheres the media on this (2 deaths I think)?

[madbikeboy]

Dang that's pretty accurate! I didn't find Italy too bad, especially if you get out of the city areas. Brazil is like Italy but a bit more aggressive and you see some crazy stuff there like a dude standing up on the back of a ute holding up a fridge with no tie down straps, while the ute is going 100kph down the highway. The French do love motorcycles.... they move over and give you tons of room to pass when you are on a bike. It is almost to the point of absurdity..... but riding in France is tops (at least it was in Southern France near the Spanish border). The speed limits in the western US are typically very reasonable.... especially Montana, Idaho (now 80mph), Utah (also has 80mph stretches), Texas even has 85mph in one section...etc. The best drivers however IMO are around the North Carolina, Georgia area.... the worst in Ohio, Michigan, New York and other states towards the North/East. Best drivers in Canada are in Quebec... they tend to be the most aggressive too, but they pay attention.... the worst are probably in British Columbia ... maybe because they are a bit....

Utah rocks. (That was a play on Moab's rocks in case you missed it). Texas is pretty fucking big, you could drive for a lifetime at 85 and still not get across it.

Italy was fun. I drafted an M5 wagon in my diesel Mito on the Autostrada, the local cops were well impressed with the effort. They gave me the thumbs up and not a ticket (which would have been a big ticket). While the drivers in BC are a bit average - I met a very accommodating group of women in Whistler. I loved Whistler.

[gammaguy]

You guys all crack me up

The Chinese do not GET their license,they PAY for them,with money,favors or both.

Driving skills dont have a dam thing to do with it.

Then our stupid government lets them over here to kill whoever is unlucky enough to get in their way.while they are on the road to buy some property so they can dump grandma in it while they fuck off back to china to run their polluting corrupted business.
Just saying...

[awayatc]

You guys all crack me up

The Chinese do not GET their license,they PAY for them,with money,favors or both.

Driving skills dont have a dam thing to do with it.

Then our stupid government lets them over here to kill whoever is unlucky enough to get in their way.while they are on the road to buy some property so they can dump grandma in it while they fuck off back to china to run their polluting corrupted business.
Just saying...

Ok, but what is the problem....?

[Shaun Harris]

You guys all crack me up

The Chinese do not GET their license,they PAY for them,with money,favors or both.

Driving skills dont have a dam thing to do with it.

Then our stupid government lets them over here to kill whoever is unlucky enough to get in their way.while they are on the road to buy some property so they can dump grandma in it while they fuck off back to china to run their polluting corrupted business.
Just saying...

OK now you have fixed the issues with the tourists here, how are you going to fix the 80% of the other crashes by NZ people

Just saying

[Grumph]

OK now you have fixed the issues with the tourists here, how are you going to fix the 80% of the other crashes by NZ people

Just saying

Well this government is pricing everything out of the reach of everyone but the Chinese - So I'd assume their answer is that soon there will only be Chinese tourists on the roads. And of course the truckers as their parliamentary lobby is very powerful (and rich)

[Ocean1]

Well this government is pricing everything out of the reach of everyone but the Chinese - So I'd assume their answer is that soon there will only be Chinese tourists on the roads. And of course the truckers as their parliamentary lobby is very powerful (and rich)

If you can't afford to drive/ride here then don't bother trying in most of the rest of the western world.

But maybe we need ACC to review the risk associated with rental vehicle use. I'm sure it varies from the rest of the national fleet sufficiently to warrant a different licencing category.

[TheDemonLord]

Well this government is pricing everything out of the reach of everyone but the Chinese - So I'd assume their answer is that soon there will only be Chinese tourists on the roads. And of course the truckers as their parliamentary lobby is very powerful (and rich)

The free market economy isn't the Government - just saying

[caspernz]

Maybe it's because the topic is front of mind, but in the past few days have observed some odd driving from campervans in and around Auckland. Traffic lights where folks think red means go, and off ramps to motorways looking like on ramps to them...

But yep like Murray commented, plenty of my fellow truckers have had interesting times as well, with a lot less media coverage...them blokes can't all be tourists too??!!