Yesterday I drove a car for the first time since I've been back in the States. Boy, it sure is amazing how much I adapted to driving on the left side of the road!
First of all, I drove a brand new Toyota Highlander which was loaded with all kinds of fancy gadgets, including a cell phone intercom, seat warmers, GPS, and a camera to help you back up. The strangest part was that the car didn't have a key! You push a button to start the car and another button to lock and unlock it.
I was a bit overwhelmed by all the new features, not to mention the size of the car. Our pint-sized Subaru Justy in New Zealand didn't even have power steering and felt like it would blow right off the road in heavy winds! In the Highlander, I felt like I was driving a tank.
But the strangest part was driving on the right side of the road. I really had to focus on my driving, especially when making a turn. I kept thinking I was turning into the wrong lane and my life would flash before my eyes! Turning on a red light was also scary, I felt like I was doing something illegal. And to make matters worse, I kept hitting the windshield wipers instead of the blinker. Crickey dick!
I didn't think 6 months in New Zealand would alter my driving habits so much. I guess I was so focused on learning to drive on the left side of the road and following New Zealand's quirky road rules that I quickly adapted to life on the left. I'm sure after a few more trips behind the wheel I'll be settled in to driving on the right side of the road.
Until then, I swear that my old car never had the steering wheel on the left side of the car....
Showing posts with label Driving. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Driving. Show all posts
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Boy Racers
The term "Boy Racer" refers to a phenomenon that has spread through out New Zealand in the past few years. Boy Racers are teenage or twenty-something boys who modify their cars and drive irresponsibly, illegally, and generally disturb the local community through noise and vandalism.
The cars driven by Boy Racers are extremely modified and extremely ugly. Typical modifications for a boy racer include:
- Hideous paint jobs, often including patterns, words or images
- Ridiculously large spoilers
- Huge, earth-shattering exhaust pipes
- Engine modifications
- Neon lights underneath the car (this is my favorite)
- Lowering
- Wide race tires
- Loud sound systems
In fact, Boy Racers have become such a problem in New Zealand that 5 % of road deaths are caused by Boy Racers. In 2003 the Land Transport (Unauthorised Street and Drag Racing) Amendment Act, also known as the "Boy Racer Act," was signed into law. The Act is aimed at street racing and burnouts in public places.
Under the law, illegal activities include driving a car in an illegal street race or accelerating in an unnecessary way. Other infractions include wheel spins, "donuts" or driving a car in a way that causes the car to lose traction. There are heavy penalties for breaking the law, such as jail time, car impoundment, and fines.
Apparently, the law has helped police collect and impound many cars, but the Boy Racers continue to be a problem. A hospital in Christchurch has to move their patients on the weekends because the noise caused by Boy Racers on the street below is so bad. In January, a Christchurch policeman was ambushed by 300 Boy Racers who threw bottles at his car and shot at him with air rifles. The policeman just drove away, leaving the Boy Racers to their own destructive devises.
After the incident city officials and the public called for more aggressive laws to deal with the Boy Racer problem, including crushing their seized cars to get them off the road. The Boy Racers responded by threatening the Christchurch Mayor for his tough stance against them. They parked their cars outside his home, yelling and revving their engines.
Hmmm, so much for law enforcement.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Always Look Right
One of the new (and sometimes dangerous) experiences of living in New Zealand is driving on the left-hand side of the road. For an American, this is a fun novelty that quickly wears off after you find yourself in a roundabout and invoke the road-rage of the Kiwi driver tailgating behind you. Despite this, I like driving our little Subaru (pronounced Sue-bar-roo) Justy around the South Island, even if it feels like the wind will blow us off the road sometimes. We just got our NZ driver's licenses so I thought I would include some driving related topics that often come up when on the road:
Blinkers, Windshield Wipers and Gear Sticks
Not only do you drive on the opposite side of the road, but all the car features are opposite as well. The steering wheel is on the right, so are the blinkers, which means I regularly clean my windshield instead of signalling a turn. This is super frustrating when I have a car immediately behind me (see below). And of course the gear stick is on the right so I constantly reach for thin air by the car door when I need to change gears.
Turning Left
OK, this may get confusing for you right-side drivers back home, but bare with me.
First of all, you can NEVER turn left on a red light. And on a green light you must WAIT FOR THE ONCOMING CARS TO TURN RIGHT FIRST (unless of course there are cars going straight in the lane next to you and they act as a 'block' for you to turn left). This is the most confusing rule in New Zealand driving and I have to mentally prepare myself before entering the intersection for a turn. Apparently NZ is the only country to still impose this rule, although the government plans to review this law later this year.
Tailgating & Passing
Tailgating seems to be a right here in New Zealand. Every time we are in the car we can expect to have a car immediately behind us. Often, they are so close you can see their blood pressure rise in your rear view mirror! In our teeny-tiny car I sometimes feel like they are along for the ride in the back seat. When I drive I turn the mirror down so I can't see them behind me. It's just makes me nervous and I still need to focus on driving and following the New Zealand driving rules. Driving back from Queenstown over the holidays we were tailgated by a double fuel tanker truck who eventually passed on on a blind curve. He was closely followed by a driver who didn't want to miss the action should the tanker crash and have fiery explosion. Sadly there are very few passing lanes or turnouts where slower drivers can let cars pass.
Speed Limits
This one surprised me a lot. The general speed limit in New Zealand is 100 kph/62.1 mph, although many people drive much faster. As a Californian, I'm used to high speed driving on freeways where people regularly drive over 128 kph/80 mph. For some reason I didn't expect Kiwi drivers to drive so fast, especially on dangerous roads. The very narrow road along Otago Harbor on the Peninsula is full of twists and turns without shoulders, turnouts or guardrails, but people insist on driving it like they are racing in the Formula 1. During the Winter months cars regularly skid on ice and end up in the harbor. Our small 3-cylinder car (you can laugh now) can barely sustain 100 kph, although we get fantastic gas mileage, errr, petrol kilometerage....
Roundabouts & Yields
Oh, the dreaded roundabout. Finding a roundabout in California is about as rare as spotting a kiwi bird in the wild. I think the town I grew up in had just one and I think it had stop signs. The roundabout is supposed to keep traffic flowing smoothly. Why stop if no one is coming, right? Well, Kiwis seem to have made an art out of never stopping their car and roundabouts & yields help facilitate this quite nicely. Drivers enter roundabouts as if there were no other cars on the road so you better know what you're doing and where your exiting before you enter one. Most residential or small town intersections only have Yield signs each way, which drivers may or may not heed. There is one particular intersection in Dunedin that I avoid like the plague, ebola and bird flu combined: 5 roads converge with Yields in all directions, if you ever figure out how to navigate this one, please let me know. I don't even try to cross it on foot.
Pedestrians
It took me a few weeks to get in the habit of looking right before crossing the road, and to remember that pedestrians rarely have the right away here. Only at certain crosswalks market with large orange lamps that look like balloons can a pedestrian cross the street with the comforting knowledge that oncoming traffic will stop. We regularly wave pedestrians across, only to receive a few honks from cars behind us.
Blinkers, Windshield Wipers and Gear Sticks
Not only do you drive on the opposite side of the road, but all the car features are opposite as well. The steering wheel is on the right, so are the blinkers, which means I regularly clean my windshield instead of signalling a turn. This is super frustrating when I have a car immediately behind me (see below). And of course the gear stick is on the right so I constantly reach for thin air by the car door when I need to change gears.
Turning Left
OK, this may get confusing for you right-side drivers back home, but bare with me.
First of all, you can NEVER turn left on a red light. And on a green light you must WAIT FOR THE ONCOMING CARS TO TURN RIGHT FIRST (unless of course there are cars going straight in the lane next to you and they act as a 'block' for you to turn left). This is the most confusing rule in New Zealand driving and I have to mentally prepare myself before entering the intersection for a turn. Apparently NZ is the only country to still impose this rule, although the government plans to review this law later this year.
Tailgating & Passing
Tailgating seems to be a right here in New Zealand. Every time we are in the car we can expect to have a car immediately behind us. Often, they are so close you can see their blood pressure rise in your rear view mirror! In our teeny-tiny car I sometimes feel like they are along for the ride in the back seat. When I drive I turn the mirror down so I can't see them behind me. It's just makes me nervous and I still need to focus on driving and following the New Zealand driving rules. Driving back from Queenstown over the holidays we were tailgated by a double fuel tanker truck who eventually passed on on a blind curve. He was closely followed by a driver who didn't want to miss the action should the tanker crash and have fiery explosion. Sadly there are very few passing lanes or turnouts where slower drivers can let cars pass.
Speed Limits
This one surprised me a lot. The general speed limit in New Zealand is 100 kph/62.1 mph, although many people drive much faster. As a Californian, I'm used to high speed driving on freeways where people regularly drive over 128 kph/80 mph. For some reason I didn't expect Kiwi drivers to drive so fast, especially on dangerous roads. The very narrow road along Otago Harbor on the Peninsula is full of twists and turns without shoulders, turnouts or guardrails, but people insist on driving it like they are racing in the Formula 1. During the Winter months cars regularly skid on ice and end up in the harbor. Our small 3-cylinder car (you can laugh now) can barely sustain 100 kph, although we get fantastic gas mileage, errr, petrol kilometerage....
Roundabouts & Yields
Oh, the dreaded roundabout. Finding a roundabout in California is about as rare as spotting a kiwi bird in the wild. I think the town I grew up in had just one and I think it had stop signs. The roundabout is supposed to keep traffic flowing smoothly. Why stop if no one is coming, right? Well, Kiwis seem to have made an art out of never stopping their car and roundabouts & yields help facilitate this quite nicely. Drivers enter roundabouts as if there were no other cars on the road so you better know what you're doing and where your exiting before you enter one. Most residential or small town intersections only have Yield signs each way, which drivers may or may not heed. There is one particular intersection in Dunedin that I avoid like the plague, ebola and bird flu combined: 5 roads converge with Yields in all directions, if you ever figure out how to navigate this one, please let me know. I don't even try to cross it on foot.
Pedestrians
It took me a few weeks to get in the habit of looking right before crossing the road, and to remember that pedestrians rarely have the right away here. Only at certain crosswalks market with large orange lamps that look like balloons can a pedestrian cross the street with the comforting knowledge that oncoming traffic will stop. We regularly wave pedestrians across, only to receive a few honks from cars behind us.
Monday, January 19, 2009
Homesick Rant: December 12 2008
This is the edited version of a Homesick Rant moment from December 12 2008:
So Im a bit homesick and need to rant about NZ a bit...
I'm homesick! But it's strange, it's not just home I miss, more like American culture in general, which scares me a bit....Oh well, I guess that's just part of living in another country and getting used to the different ways things are done here. When your in a new place, everything different about it gets on your nerves if there is nothing good to balance it out (ie: things I like about it). For me it's the driving. Kiwis are the most aggressive drivers ever! They tailgate so bad ALL THE TIME. Not sure where that laid back kiwi attitude goes when they get on the road. Honestly, when I drive I turn our rear view mirror down so I can't see behind me (our car is so small it doesn't really matter anyway). There's no point, I know that there is someone behind me.
But there are lots of things in NZ that have been surprises actually. It's very beautiful, but our location looks a lot like Northern CA. Everyone raves about the natural beauty but we don't find it all that exciting or particularly special yet. I do like all the flowers and weird birds though! And of course, the weather! I knew that my boyfriend had a freezing winter but I figured summer would be somewhat decent. Summers in Dunedin=RAIN! Booooo. I live in wool sweaters and we are heading into Summer.....I can't imagine what Winter will be like, maybe I'll just hibernate or spin a cocoon!
I've come to realize something very fundamental about myself: I need culture in my life, I should have known.....art, architecture, music, opera, food, nightlife....there is really nothing of the sort here in Dunedin so I have nothing to balance out the nature. I like nature and outdoorsy things, but people come to the South Island really only for outdoor adventures, most of which I'm not really interested in. Although I do want to go river-rafting and glow-worm caving. And maybe zorbing (you know, the plastic hamster ball thing?)....but I really don't want to go for 5 day tramps in the rain. Ick!
I really want to learn more about Maori and South Pacific culture but unfortunately few Maori live this far south. Most live on the North Island...maybe the weather has something to do with it. I guess for now I'll just have to drink all the new wines I'm discovering.
So Im a bit homesick and need to rant about NZ a bit...
I'm homesick! But it's strange, it's not just home I miss, more like American culture in general, which scares me a bit....Oh well, I guess that's just part of living in another country and getting used to the different ways things are done here. When your in a new place, everything different about it gets on your nerves if there is nothing good to balance it out (ie: things I like about it). For me it's the driving. Kiwis are the most aggressive drivers ever! They tailgate so bad ALL THE TIME. Not sure where that laid back kiwi attitude goes when they get on the road. Honestly, when I drive I turn our rear view mirror down so I can't see behind me (our car is so small it doesn't really matter anyway). There's no point, I know that there is someone behind me.
But there are lots of things in NZ that have been surprises actually. It's very beautiful, but our location looks a lot like Northern CA. Everyone raves about the natural beauty but we don't find it all that exciting or particularly special yet. I do like all the flowers and weird birds though! And of course, the weather! I knew that my boyfriend had a freezing winter but I figured summer would be somewhat decent. Summers in Dunedin=RAIN! Booooo. I live in wool sweaters and we are heading into Summer.....I can't imagine what Winter will be like, maybe I'll just hibernate or spin a cocoon!
I've come to realize something very fundamental about myself: I need culture in my life, I should have known.....art, architecture, music, opera, food, nightlife....there is really nothing of the sort here in Dunedin so I have nothing to balance out the nature. I like nature and outdoorsy things, but people come to the South Island really only for outdoor adventures, most of which I'm not really interested in. Although I do want to go river-rafting and glow-worm caving. And maybe zorbing (you know, the plastic hamster ball thing?)....but I really don't want to go for 5 day tramps in the rain. Ick!
I really want to learn more about Maori and South Pacific culture but unfortunately few Maori live this far south. Most live on the North Island...maybe the weather has something to do with it. I guess for now I'll just have to drink all the new wines I'm discovering.
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