Driving in New Zealand

One of the things I wasn't looking forward to was driving on the wrong (left hand) side of the road. I'd done this once before, about 10 years ago, in Tasmania, Australia. One of the key things I remember is going to make a turn, and hitting the windshield wipers. The turn signal and wipers are on the opposite side of the steering wheel. I remember my children making fun of me and commenting that I was going to turn whenever the windshield wipers went on. The other things that were memorable were the turnarounds and the judging of distances from the opposite side of the car.

I've been driving for a couple of days, and for the most part (big if here), it has not been too bad. The wipers were going off pretty frequently the first day, but it is less so now. The turnarounds aren't bad. I rented a GPS and it helps having a voice tell you which exit to get off on. The only issue that I did have was judging distances. The first day, I was driving and looking for a place for lunch. Missed several and finally came upon a cafe. There was someone behind me, so I quickly pulled over to the curb on the left. I hit the curb. I got out and the plastic hub cap was scrapped. I'd wondered why all the cars on the street were parked about 1 foot away from the curb. I went to lunch, came back, hopped in the car and took off and something was wrong. I had a flat tire. This small town had square curbs that were made out of volcanic rock. The rock not only scrapped the hub cap, but cut the side wall. Flat tire. There was an old fashioned service station across the street, so I walked over there and they came over and change the tire. Only $10NZ ($7US). At least the spare was full size.

Today, I went to look for a new tire. Turns out it is an odd size and about the only car that uses it is the Nissan that I rent. They called the tire distributor and he said that he hadn't sold one of those in Napier or the area (population 70,000+) for over 6 months. I ordered one that is supposed to be overnighted so it can be taken care of tomorrow.

I'm much more careful in parking now!