On the the other hand – Rimutaka Road ahead of schedule.
The Manawatu Gorge may be stuffed, but the work on the Rimutaka hill is storming ahead – and is due to finish months early – in March next year. I cant wait. It’s impressive as it is – but right now its little better than driving on a 4wd track. Which in a low 2 seater sports car is – um – fun.
Not a road you can drive right now with the hood down!
Im still really grateful to all the crews working up there – especially over the winter.
A small issue of a blocked road.
This is the current state of the Manawatu Gorge - the main road between the Wairarapa and Palmerston North.
Its been like this for months now, after a storm caused an initial slip back in August. Its been open for 3 days since then. The issue is causing massive problems – there is another route from the Wairarapa, but its a slower road and longer – so will make a big difference for haulage companies and other businesses. The Gorge runs from Woodville to Ashurst, now you need to turn off at Pahiatua and head through the Pahiatua Track. Its a nice drive – especially if you have to time to take in the scenery.
The Gorge is stunning actually – the problem is that you don’t have anywhere to stop and admire it -its a narrow road with no stopping spaces.
But with the size of the slip now – I can see it being a very long time before I drive through there again.
Driving in Fiji
easy eh?!
This time around as the weather was really crap we decided to grab a hire car and go for a drive along the Fiji coast. I soon got the hang of Fiji driving, a perspective you don’t quite get as a passenger in a taxi.
So here are the simple things to keep in mind;
1. The roads aren’t fast, wide or good. So to help you keep your speed down, there are speed bumps.
2. Fiji has gone for the older version of the speed bump, which is more portable, a lot more effective at slowing traffic and a more efficient with tarmac. Us European types would call it a pot hole.
3. The white lines down the middle of the road – are there to tell you where there aren’t any potholes.
4. The safest part of the road to drive on, is to the left, or the right, or straddling, the white lines. Whichever bit of the road has fewer pot holes.
5. The car, bus or truck driving directly towards you is not in fact trying to kill you. They’re just being friendly and showing you that there are fewer potholes on your side of the road than theirs, so you’d better stick to this side.
6. You will often meet random cows, horses, dogs and people wandering in the roads. They are admiring the potholes.
7. Be aware that occasionally you will come accross a real speedbump. Not for any particular reason, like needing to slow down for schools or suchlike – but just becasue. It will likely be followed by the mother of all potholes.
8. Do NOT get complacent when you finally find a stretch of road with no potholes. It will be immediately followed by half a mile of non-stop potholes.
9. The national speedlimit is 80kph, which for those of who think 100kph is bad enough – is painful. But not as painful as flying over the potholes at 100kph would be.
Only in New Zealand: Building roads 1km a year!
I’ve lived in this house for 4 years now – and since them, or road has being a semi-constant construction site as the road crews “improve” the road. It’s 3 km long, and with very little traffic on it – it being a dead end. (It ends in a river as it happens).
And when I say semi-constant – it goes like this:
- Trucks turn up and rip up the road or the sides of the road for about 300 yards..
- Trucks go away.
- Months go by.
- Trucks come back and dump a load of gravel on the road which we then have to navigate for month without skidding off into the fields.
- Trucks go away.
- Months go by.
- Trucks come back and seal the road.
- Calm descends till the next time.
So it was with some amusement – but unfortunately not great surprise to read in the local rag a few weeks ago that the mayor of south Wairarapa says:
with around 300 kilometres of gravel roads in the district, there has been an ongoing programme of trying to seal around a kilometre a year.
I kid you not – 300 years to seal all the gravel roads in the Wairarapa!
I wouldn’t mind – but there’s actually nothing wrong with our road – it’s not a gravel road – so why are they “improving” it (actually making a right bloody mess of it in fact).
The mind boggles.
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See – laws can be amended at the drop of hat for being too silly.
Monday this week it appeared in the news that a new law about to come into force next month may have in insey-winsey little bit of a cock up in it. Stuff reported on The Road User Amendment Rule 2009.
Which helpfully
“…means drivers will not be able to look at a navigation aid on a mobile phone when driving, even if it is mounted on the dashboard. You can use a mobile phone held in a cradle while driving, but only to make, receive or terminate a phone call. You cannot use them in any other way, such as reading a GPS map, reading email or consulting an electronic diary.
However the law allows people to use normal SatNav devices. Which is daft.
On Tuesday, the transport minister, Stephen Joyce is reported as saying:
“It is not the intent of the rule to make it illegal for motorists to use the satellite navigation or music functions of their cellphones, provided these are mounted in the vehicle and are manipulated infrequently. The rule would be amended to make that clear.”
Smart man – egg quickly and efficiently removed from face and common sense restored. Don’t get me wrong – I am keen to see a law come in that stops plonkers nearly killing me because its more important to text someone than get their car safely round a corner. But laws should be sensible. And one that says you can use hand free SatNav, unless it happens to also be a hands free phone is just – well – silly.
Hopefully the IALA will not be far behind in getting amended to make some sense.
At least this story shows that it can be done. It took one story in the media to get the Road Amendment act altered (or at least an agreement to alter it). There have been several media reports about the IALA and its effect on bloggers, forum posters and support groups. It worries me slightly that this is being ignored – and its starting to look a bit like we don’t matter because we are migrants. I really hope that is not the case.
Anyway – I have emailed my letter to the Immigration Minister Dr Jonathan Coleman today. I hope it does some good.
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Rimutaka Upgrade is on the way (apparently).
Well – what do you know. Apparently we are going to get the next upgrade on the road starting anytime now. It will be a pain with the roadworks, but after the last lot of upgrades, and how much better it has made the journey into Wellington – I am personally more than happy to put with the delays for a few years to get a straighter road.
Just take a look at the plan!
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Crash Barriers on the Rimutaka Road.
It’s a beautiful road, but with “crash barriers” like this – it’s actually surprising that there aren’t more accidents.
Thankfully – they are currently being (slowly) replaced.
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Wellington, Wind and nutters on the roads.
There is no doubt – it’s bloody windy in Wellington. You just get used to it, and get used to the fact that your house can shake and rattle even without a earthquake. It’s also a fact of life that the Rimutaka Hill road can be “interesting” to drive over. And it’s also the case that many Kiwi drivers are really bad at driving!
Put all those together and you can have a potentially bad situation.
A bit like the one we were in this morning.
We know it was going to be a tough drive over the hill when we got to Featherston and the signs were on warning of gusts. The weather was actually fine in the Wairarapa, but then its not unheard of for the weather to be completely different on each side of the hill. It doesn’t take long on the way up, to start getting buffeted by the wind, and the car started moving to one side. Given that there ain’t always a huge amount of room between the driving line and the cliff face (and on the other way over, between the driving line and a sheer drop down into the bush through the hopefully named “crash barrier”) you need to pay attention and keep a firm hand on the wheel.
So it was a bit scary when at one point we got a sharp shove towards the cliff, while going round a blind right hand bend, and some bloody idiot overtook us! At this point , we were already driving at about 55kph, and this guy shot past us. In itself – that is unusual, as often “overtaking” consists of someone drawing up along side you, and staying there till the end of an overtaking lane when they suddenly realise that two cars don’t actually fit into the same space and someone is supposed to slam the breaks on. We estimate he was doing over 70kph, in strong gusting winds, on a blind bend, in an overtaking manoeuvre. Twit.
I mean – you have to be bad driver to overtake like that anyway: this is not a road where you want to overtake anywhere without a passing lane – let alone in bad weather. Life is just going to end one day in a splat if you do it – and there are enough people who crash on the road as it is. It was more luck than skill that stopped him shoving us into the hillside. I would personally prefer these people did not try and take us with them.
You know – a lot of people won’t move into the Wairarapa because of the need to travel over this road. But on a good day, the drive can be a whole lot of fun. You always need to be really careful, its not an easy drive – but assuming you can actually drive a car properly – it can be great! The views are stunning (though don’t stare if you are the driver – take turns to drive!)
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Only In New Zealand: The Right Turn Rule.
This is a piece of the New Zealand Road Code that baffles just about everyone, whether they visit the country, migrate here, or were born and learned to drive here. It is a feat of warped thinking of epic proportions. According to the New Zealand Automobile Association (AA), this single rule is thought to be the cause of about 2500 crashes a year.
Which is not that surprising since no-one I’ve met actually understands why this rule exists, and pretty much everyone thinks its silly.
So – what is the rule?
Well, imagine you are driving down a main road (on the Left Hand Side just in case you are European or American). Now: let’s just say you want to turn left into a side street. Normally – you would have right of way, and you would turn in and anyone else would have to wait their turn.
But in New Zealand, if someone was coming towards you on the other side of the road, and they also want to turn into that side street (making a Right Hand Turn); they have right of way.
You need to stop in the middle of the road, let them turn in front of you – and then you can turn left.
Unless there are cars behind you: in which case they can move round you as you turn, and the car coming towards you wanting to turn right in front of you should let those cars go before they turn.
The result is usually confusion all round, where everyone at the junction does this sort of stop-start manoeuvre while they try to guess if anyone involved understands the rule or not. As most people seem not to understand – do you risk turning / not turning in case they do / don’t understand what they are supposed to do? And that is assuming that you understand the rule in the first place.
Historically – this rule was introduced in 1977, based on a rule in Victoria, Australia, to help cope with trams. Apparently no one noticed the lack of trams in New Zealand. (Except in Christchurch, which has a Tram travelling round the city centre). Victoria dissolved the rule in 1993 – and noticed a significant decline in accidents. New Zealand still refuses to do so, despite pressure from many sources, including the AA, the Ministry of Transport and the Land Transport Agency.
The mind boggles at the stupidity of keeping a rule that causes such utter confusion and mayhem. Apparently the reason for not changing back is that it would be too hard for “the people” to understand. Sheesh.
Whether you are just travelling to visit New Zealand, or intend to move here – take extra care on the roads when you want to turn left into a side road, and remember when you want to right – if the oncoming traffic stops – it’s because you are supposed to cross in front of them. More Info and pictures can be found at AA Directions
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