Driving in New Zealand
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@canefan said in Driving in New Zealand:
@broughie said in Driving in New Zealand:
What is 50kpm? I would not know how to drive that speed any more.
It's a suggestion, not a hard and fast rule
Backed up by speed cameras and radar? Last time I was back in NZ I rented a car and every time you went faster than around 60 (100 kph) it would start beeping. The radio blaring did not drown it out either.
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Driving in NZ is fucking great, especially after driving in North Queensland.
The other year when we stayed up in Northland i had one of my mates from here with us. The drive between the Bay of Islands and Taipa was fucking awesome. Great road quality, good camber, plenty to look at, no traffic and no cops. We fucking honked, and the North Queenslander couldn't believe how much fun it was to drive.
Here? The roads are appallingly bad (seriously, the Bruce highway is fucked). The countryside is fucking boring, the roads are boring, there aren't enough overtaking lanes (because everything is straight i guess) but that just leads to lines of traffic. When we drove to Brisbane the other year it just sucked.
The only thing about NZ is that 50km speed limit through town. When you are used to 60k, speed cameras can be an absolute bitch (fuck you Katikati)
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@mariner4life ha, locals moan about roads here all the time...when we have people visit from overseas I say that is the best and worst thing about NZ< is you pretty much have to drive everywhere!
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Add me to the list of those bemused by the iconic reputation of the Great Ocean Road. Its not great - most of it is nowhere near an Ocean but it is a road, of sorts, just not much fun to drive.
We do a lot of long weekends away either in my car or fly drive and NZ has some amazing drives - for scenery and driving pleasure. Too many to list. In fact apart from the area between Auckland and Taupo almost everywhere is good.
Drivers not so though. I'm an appalling passenger mainly due to seeing so many lame brained maneuvers on the road. Not an open road thing but add running red lights to our list of bad driving habits.
As for Taupo - Napier - great fucking drive. One of the few places in North Island where you can really open up with little concern as there is usually very little traffic. I've just this afternoon bought a nearly new Audi S5 so looking forward to getting onto that road and seeing if I can beat my PB
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@mariner4life said in Driving in New Zealand:
Here? The roads are appallingly bad (seriously, the Bruce highway is fucked). The countryside is fucking boring, the roads are boring, there aren't enough overtaking lanes (because everything is straight i guess) but that just leads to lines of traffic. When we drove to Brisbane the other year it just sucked.
Holiday traffic on the Pacific Highway:
@dogmeat said in Driving in New Zealand:
dd me to the list of those bemused by the iconic reputation of the Great Ocean Road. Its not great - most of it is nowhere near an Ocean but it is a road, of sorts, just not much fun to drive.
It's just different to most other roads in Oz:
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Apparently the speed limit on the Great Ocean Rd is now 80km/h which makes even more disappointing.
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@dogmeat said in Driving in New Zealand:
We do a lot of long weekends away either in my car or fly drive and NZ has some amazing drives - for scenery and driving pleasure. Too many to list. In fact apart from the area between Auckland and Taupo almost everywhere is good.
My Hatiest drive is between Sanson and Paekakareke. Those long dull straights and then having to go through Otaki and Levin is just a pain.
In saying that, I think it is as bad as the Auckland to Tokoroa drive. (I don't mind from Tok to Taupo) Once they finish the expressway bypassing Hamilton and Huntly, that drive will seem a doddle
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@antipodean I also drove Pacific Highway from Melbourne to Brisbane one year between Xmas and New Year. I had been to first day of Ashes Test and decided to drive north to Tweed Heads to see my old man.
What a fucking mistake that was - unremitting boredom for hours on end and seemingly endless road works
Highlight was Byron Bay - because it was on fire. I've never driven through a bush fire before and don't plan to again in a hurry. But even the excitement of that was outweighed by the tedium of the other 3 days.
@Hooroo you must like pine trees
@mariner4life the only driving I've enjoyed was all in tropical north Queensland. Did Port Douglas to Undarra (and back) in a day and found a lot to like about it. Fuck you guts have a lot of termites
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@broughie said in Driving in New Zealand:
@canefan said in Driving in New Zealand:
@broughie said in Driving in New Zealand:
What is 50kpm? I would not know how to drive that speed any more.
It's a suggestion, not a hard and fast rule
Backed up by speed cameras and radar? Last time I was back in NZ I rented a car and every time you went faster than around 60 (100 kph) it would start beeping. The radio blaring did not drown it out either.
ok?
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@Hooroo said in Driving in New Zealand:
@dogmeat said in Driving in New Zealand:
We do a lot of long weekends away either in my car or fly drive and NZ has some amazing drives - for scenery and driving pleasure. Too many to list. In fact apart from the area between Auckland and Taupo almost everywhere is good.
My Hatiest drive is between Sanson and Paekakareke. Those long dull straights and then having to go through Otaki and Levin is just a pain.
In saying that, I think it is as bad as the Auckland to Tokoroa drive. (I don't mind from Tok to Taupo) Once they finish the expressway bypassing Hamilton and Huntly, that drive will seem a doddle
My hatiest drive is Timaru to Christchurch or vice versa. At least the number of passing lanes has increased in the past 15 years but it's still flat, boring, and getting through Ashburton has taken 25 minutes on occasion with traffic backed up from Tinwald to the racecourse (one end of town to the other) for no particular reason.