If you’re going to take a vacation in New Zealand and you are from the USA or Canada, you’ll find a few differences when you arrive in New Zealand. Firstly, everyone drives on the wrong side of the road just like the British, and secondly, their road markings and road signs are a little different.
Fortunately, most things are quite self-explanatory. They do follow either international conventions or are easy enough to understand, but there are a few quirks that can trip you up, and you don’t want to have your hire car impounded or to be charged a fine.
You’ll need to know the basic road rules. There’s a free tourist Road Code quiz here – there are 66 questions and it’ll take you about 10 -15 minutes to familiarise yourself with a few signs and rules that are important.
Let’s also take a look at three things you need to know.
Holiday speed tolerances
During the year the police have a 10kph speed tolerance. This means that if the limit is 100kph (62mph) then you can get away with 110kph without the police bothering you, as long as you’re not doing anything dangerous or erratic. However, during holiday weekends — and sometimes extended holiday periods — the tolerance is dropped to 4kph, and this is really easy to exceed. You get on those amazing, sinuous New Zealand roads and your speed creeps up gradually without you noticing it. Try using cruise control to help you.
School buses
If you are in New Zealand outside of school holidays, you will see school buses on the road. In rural areas, the open road speed limit is generally 100kph. However, the speed limit past a school bus that is either setting down or picking up children is 20kph. You don’t need to stop for the bus, but you do need to slow down. It’s easy to miss this and not slow down on the 100kph road, and then you might be caught doing 80kph (50mph) more than the limit. If so, the vehicle will be impounded, you’ll be fined heavily and you will be banned from driving in New Zealand for 6 months. Note: The same limit applies if you see a blue or orange ‘accident’ sign.
Courteous driving
In tourist areas, especially on the South Island, police are vigilant when it comes to dealing with tourist drivers. They won’t unfairly target tourists, but they do look out for several things: speeding, erratic driving and inconsiderate driving. Erratic driving is often demonstrated when you are trying to look at the awesome scenery rather than the road – it’s tempting, believe us. Inconsiderate driving is when you have a queue of vehicles behind you that you are holding up.
You will find passing bays and passing lanes on some roads, but not all. If you have any more than 3-4 vehicles behind you, and they can’t overtake you, then you must let them past, if it’s reasonable to do so. They will be understanding that you are sightseeing, but they won’t be understanding if they are behind you for 10km. This is a particular problem on roads like the Thames-Coromandel coast road (pictured above) where the road winds its ways along the sea shore and there are only a couple of passing opportunities in around 60km of road.
When you hire your car or campervan you will get a copy of the NZTA booklet ‘What’s Different About Driving in New Zealand’. This also has a few reminders in about general road rules – use of cellular phones, speed limits, keeping left, and so on. But have a look at the tourist quiz first before you get to New Zealand and you’ll be well on your way to having a safe and enjoyable self-drive vacation.
