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Detailed travelogue on Australia and New Zealand

Detailed Travelogue on Australia and New Zealand

Larry
2006-05-27 03:23:16

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had
only one lane in each direction, with only an occasinal passing lane (during
uphill grades only). The traffic inched by at 30-40kph, and the thought
that kept running through my mind was just how bad New Zealand drivers are.
To be fair, most of the cars heading up to the Bay of Islands that day were
driven by teenagers or 20-somethings going up to celebrate New Year's Eve --
perhaps not the "average" New Zealand driver -- but for my entire stay in
the country, it was clear that NZ drivers were lot less careful and a lot
riskier than their Australian (or even American) counterparts. With the
drivers that day up to the Bay of Islands, I could have been in Taiwan.
Cars were trying to pass left and right, coming inches from hitting oncoming
traffic just to get one car ahead in a line of cars that stretched into the
thousands -- and that wasn't about to start moving anytime soon.
Later, in other parts of New Zealand, the drivers didn't seem quite as
bad, but even then, New Zealanders would do incredibly stupid things on the
road. It's apparently a recognized problem, because every few minutes on TV
were advertisements about driving fatality statistics, and reminders to
drive safely and not drink. One very graphic (and long) public service
announcement that appeared over and over again on TV showed one gruesome car
accident after another, injured bodies, relatives of the dead crying, all
while playing "Auld Lang Syne" in the background. It talked about traffic
fatalities, mentioning that so far, the count this year was less than in
previous years.
Australia also aired similar (albeit less graphic) public service
announcements on TV for the holiday season (concentrating more on speeding),
but the problem is far less severe in Australia than in New Zealand. After
driving a total of 7500km in both countries, I can ...

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