South Island driving route
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@JC said in South Island driving route:
In breaking news, it’s now known that it’s possible to drive the entire length of the island on one tank of fuel and without having to stop for a piss. Happy days.
Apparently it's 5 hours from Auckland to Cape Reinga, so the full trip would be around 13 hours. Seems unlikely... Was talking about it with my wife, and I think MoH public servants would generally be trained to accept people's statements at face value, where the police or a department like immigration would be a lot more suspicious.
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Day 1 of the season at Cardrona today. Amazing weather.
There is an Inversion sitting over Wanaka, has been here for days. Just grey fog sitting on the town. Depressing.
But drive up the hill, and it's just blue skies and warmth. So good.
Snow was average, as you'd expect. But great fun, especially for the kids to get their skills back.
Happy days
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As good a place as any for a NZ driving question. Twice on today's trip there have been instances of 2 lanes being funnelled into 1. Both times a few cars have driven down the middle of 2 lanes to prevent anyone going past them and forcing a single lane well ahead of the merge point.
Is that common in NZ? If so, why? Why not just merge at the merge point???
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@voodoo said in South Island driving route:
As good a place as any for a NZ driving question. Twice on today's trip there have been instances of 2 lanes being funnelled into 1. Both times a few cars have driven down the middle of 2 lanes to prevent anyone going past them and forcing a single lane well ahead of the merge point.
Is that common in NZ? If so, why? Why not just merge at the merge point???
Because you have to be in front?
Haven't done a lot of driving in NZ for the past 15 years, but I always got the impression there was a need to "be in front", less than ideal amounts of patience. Speeding up at passing lanes was a particular bugbear.
It's not non-existent this side if the deetch, but definitely less prevalent.
Maybe the roads are narrower and windier with less opportunity to pass so you minimise the need to?
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@voodoo said in South Island driving route:
As good a place as any for a NZ driving question. Twice on today's trip there have been instances of 2 lanes being funnelled into 1. Both times a few cars have driven down the middle of 2 lanes to prevent anyone going past them and forcing a single lane well ahead of the merge point.
Is that common in NZ? If so, why? Why not just merge at the merge point???
I share your frustration. Is a weird occurrence brought about by people that can't understand the action of merging where you have been provided with a merge point. Some even think they are doing the right thing.
If you are in a major congestion situation that goes well beyond the merge then it is courteous not to 'jump the queue' by using the other lane as a passing lane, but when traffic is moving I see nothing wrong in just positioning yourself normally and blending.
For most of our time in London there were roadworks on the Brighton Road heading north which we would have to go through coming back from a day in Surrey. One lane blocked off but cones out for about 100m to facilitate blending. Invariably some twits would come to a grinding halt 500m back to perform a hard turn into the other lane of traffic meaning that lane had to halt as well. Used to do my head in.
Funniest one though was in France heading down the motorway toward the Chunnel check in. This time there were two lanes and a big shoulder and apparently there it really is the done thing to tuck in behind any line that is forming (even though they create a merge). Anyway we had this woman trying to block everyone from going past her by swinging all over the place as others tried to get past as the merge was about 2km away. It was fucking hilarious as we and the car next to us played her for ages watching her boil and gesticulate wildly.
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@Crucial @booboo these were both between Welly and Otaki, and I agree thefolk doing it probably thought they were being fair by blocking off the passing lane. I just got frustrated at their assumption that they had the right to set a new merge point! Just fill up the passing lane as we all arrive, and we can all merge into 1 lane at the appropriate point. Same outcome, no need for a single lane stretching for 2km back!
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@voodoo said in South Island driving route:
@Crucial @booboo these were both between Welly and Otaki, and I agree thefolk doing it probably thought they were being fair by blocking off the passing lane. I just got frustrated at their assumption that they had the right to set a new merge point! Just fill up the passing lane as we all arrive, and we can all merge into 1 lane at the appropriate point. Same outcome, no need for a single lane stretching for 2km back!
Yep. They don't want anyone jumping the queue that they helped create.
Merging should be a major part of obtaining a licence. Merging does not involve stopping and turning. Merging should not force anyone behind you to have to brake.
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We should have road marking that shows when an overtaking lane is ending like they have in the UK. If you are overtaking a truck you won't see the sign that says "200m" and unless you know the road can get severely caught out with truck pushing you into the other lane .
See it on Pohuehue viaduct all the time with people ending up facing oncoming traffic on a bridge.
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@Crucial said in South Island driving route:
Merging should be a major part of obtaining a licence. Merging does not involve stopping and turning. Merging should not force anyone behind you to have to brake.
As should use of roundabouts. Fucking kills me when my mum, and about 90% of Palmy drivers, come to a complete stop at every roundabout, regardless of whether anything is coming!
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@voodoo said in South Island driving route:
@Crucial said in South Island driving route:
Merging should be a major part of obtaining a licence. Merging does not involve stopping and turning. Merging should not force anyone behind you to have to brake.
As should use of roundabouts. Fucking kills me when my mum, and about 90% of Palmy drivers, come to a complete stop at every roundabout, regardless of whether anything is coming!
I don't want to go top hard on Palmy
but this was one of the first things I noticed when I moved there - no one knew what to do on a roundabout. There's always people in every city who don't know how to use them but Palmy seemed extra bad. But then I clicked there were barely any compared with Hastings (back in 2006) where they seem to put one on every intersection.A couple of years later I was chatting with the Higgins dudes putting in a roundabout near my office (by the Post Office near the corner of the Square) and they said that Hastings has a curved cutter (or some technical term) and Palmy doesn't, so they don't get as many done as they need to do more manual work. I had noticed they were taking ages to put the roundabout in.
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@Snowy said in South Island driving route:
@Bones said in South Island driving route:
@Snowy I thought there is? Is it only on the LH side?
Nope. Just side of the road sign. Pisses my Welsh wife off no end that we don’t have the roadmarking. She is actually correct for once.
Have you acknowledged her correctness on this point?
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@Snowy said in South Island driving route:
@Bones said in South Island driving route:
@Snowy I thought there is? Is it only on the LH side?
Nope. Just side of the road sign. Pisses my Welsh wife off no end that we don’t have the roadmarking. She is actually correct for once.
I like how you have to make a distinction as to which wife you're talking about.
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@Bones said in South Island driving route:
@Snowy said in South Island driving route:
@Bones said in South Island driving route:
@Snowy I thought there is? Is it only on the LH side?
Nope. Just side of the road sign. Pisses my Welsh wife off no end that we don’t have the roadmarking. She is actually correct for once.
I like how you have to make a distinction as to which wife you're talking about.
To be Mr Serious briefly - they have the arrows in the UK and she has been caught out in head on traffic due to lack of them here.
I struggle dealing with one wife, so you can keep your Middle Eastbourne polygamy ideas to yourself.
