The Very Real Challenges of Driving

Disclaimer: Mom, this might not be your favorite post ever.





Alpine Highway -- At this point, I had no idea what was in store for the drive ahead



When I first got here, there was some talk in the office about needing to take a driving lesson before getting my rental car. The other new engineer in the office from New York had barely driven before coming to New Zealand and has had a few incidents (to say the least). Management asked me how comfortable I was driving, and I said I thought I'd be ok, so they decided to forgo my driving lesson.

It's been going pretty well, but after a day of driving across the country  I have a few comments to make on driving here. I've found that the hardest thing about driving is New Zealand is... driving in New Zealand.

Hear me out.

There are plenty of things that could be hard..

1. Driving on the left side of the road

A coworker gave me the advice, "Follow traffic and go the wrong way on the roundabout". Turns out that's all there is to it. Honestly, the hardest part of driving on the left is remembering which side of your steering wheel has windshield wipers and which has a turn signal.

2. Navigating without GPS

Navigating in New Zealand is pretty simple because there's really only one road in any direction. As long as you don't stray from the path you can get pretty much anywhere you want to go. Sometimes the road will even change and as long as you keep going straight it'll all work out. For example to get to Taylor's Mistake the road will change from Blenheim to Moorhouse to Ferry to Main to Mariner to Wakefield to Evans Pass to Summit Road and you won't make a single turn. Just keep driving and you'll be there in an hour.

3. Other drivers

You might even thing the other drivers could make it difficult, but surprisingly, Kiwis are pretty good drivers. They will always let you cut in front of them in a pinch... as long as you're not on foot. Pedestrians do not have the right of way here.

4. It's really just being in New Zealand that makes it so hard. There is no such thing as an easy drive here and that makes it so difficult and ultimately, exhausting.

Here are the tales of the three longer drives I've done so far -- its definitely not all sunshine and rainbows:

My first free Saturday, I decided to get out of Christchurch and drive to Akaroa. I texted my coworker, Sarah, to see what she thought of the idea. She responded, "Yes, but make sure you're back by dark. The roads to Akaroa are really windy." Sarah's from Wisconsin (where I imagine the roads are flat and straight), so I thought, being from Pittsburgh, an hour and a half on windy roads couldn't be too bad. Plus, the directions were literally to make a right and keep going for an hour and a half. How hard could that be? Well those roads certainly were windy. Up the mountain, around the mountain, down the mountain, and around the bay... The views were unbelievable. I told myself that I would stop at the overlooks on the way home, but by the time I was heading home, I knew I just needed to go with the momentum and drive straight home before I passed out. but I made it safely! and before dark.

The view from Akaroa looking back at the hills I drove around. They don't look like much but those roads are windy!

I mentioned that my drive to the Taylor's Mistake hike yesterday was terrifying, but I just want to reiterate this one. I followed the road (because thats what you do here) as it took me up a mountain, but then I came to a 3 way intersection. One way said "Road Closed" but had some dates that didn't apply, one way was a dead end, and the last way said "Scenic Reserve" and had about 5 ft of grating instead of a paved road - similar to what I had seen on the Rapaki Track, where cars were not allowed. I chose the "Road Closed" path.. naturally. This road turned out to be a one-lane-for-two-way-traffic road, on the side of a cliff, with no guard rail. A few minutes in to scaling the side of this mountain, I started to feel like this was not the way to be going. There was also no other traffic, so I started to wonder if I had misread the sign and the road actually was closed TODAY. If that way the case I was in a liiiittle bit of trouble because there was no way to turn around. Luckily, I got to a place in the mountain with some extra room to back a tight turn around. A little shaken up, I drove back to the point where I had made my original choice, and decided the "Scenic Reserve"  (what does that even mean??) had to be the way to go. I parked my car next to some others, and started walking. A couple minutes later a car passed me. I felt extremely unsafe, but more than that,  I was thrilled to know that I too could be in my car! I ran back to the car, drove in to the scenic reserve, and quickly became terrified of the cliff, yet again. You know the rest from my other post, and once again, I made it home safely, but absolutely exhausted. I drove straight to my new apartment, left all of my belongings in the car, and laid down in my new bed.

Too scared and confused to take any pictures of the actual drive, but this is how happy I was to be off that road



I went out with some friends last night and told them about my drive to Taylor's Mistake. Each of their responses was pretty appropriate. From the native Kiwi: Welcome to New Zealand. You should probably let someone know where you are and when you're back if you ever do that again. From the French Canadian: OMG I would've been terrified. From my boss: Oh yeaaaaa. I really should've warned you when I told you to go there. Thanks, boss.

Today was a new day, another opportunity for an exhausting drive. We have Monday off work, so I decided to take a two day trip to the west coast. I had heard the drive was nice, and there's just one road so I figured it would be pretty pleasant. Wrong again. Damn this country. The first half of the drive was absolutely beautiful!!

The mountains were massive (I guess I can finally agree with Sarah that the port hills of Christchurch are in fact "hills"). They were all different, and surrounded by beautiful creeks and rivers and lakes.


Rain was coming just to the left of this frame, so had to pull over and snap this one while I could

But after I got through the mountain ranges, and in to the rainforest, the blue sky disappeared and was replaced by an overbearing grey sky. It started to rain and the road signs changed from "Scenic Lookout" to "Death Corner Overlook". I'm not even kidding. Don't mind if I don't. So I kept driving, thinking it would get better. It couldn't be that grey on the coast right? I stuck it out and went to Hokitika as planned, felt tired by the drive, and bummed about the weather, and decided that I would go to my hotel in Greymouth, take a shower, rest for a few minutes and then try to enjoy the rest of the trip as a new person. When I got to Greymouth, the entire "city" was shut down for a motorcycle race (not my cup of tea) and I couldn't even get to my hotel. I had little patience left, so at that point I gave up, got a coffee, and told myself if I left now I could make it back through the mountains before the sun went down. Luckily, I was right (finally), and the mountains were just as beautiful on the way back, but by the time I got home I was so exhausted that I collapsed on the my couch and was able to convince myself that I had ebola. #paranoid. But also just so downright exhausted.

Pulled over to capture this view on my way back. Loved driving through the mountains, but happy to be home.

I'm happy to report that after some rest and some food, I no longer think I have any form of an illness.


I think I'm going to take a break from driving for a while. I'm excited to get settled in to my new apartment tomorrow and you'll be happy to know I have plane tickets for my three upcoming trips. Phew.