This weekend I had an unexpected adventure. For the first time since June last year, I drove. Not only that, I drove on the wrong side of the road, while sitting on the wrong side of the car. Crikey!
I had made plans to visit Tauranga for the weekend to catch up with some friends. So I booked my bus tickets and arranged a place to stay and confirmed my boss would let me play hooky for Friday afternoon. Friday was a lovely sunny day and all was well with the world....until I got to the bus and found out my ticket had somehow been cancelled, and I therefore had no way to get from A to B. So what to do. I considered cancelling, but after chatting with those expecting me we decided to figure out a way to make it work. Flying was not an affordable option and there is no train, and only one bus per day, so that left driving. I was able to get a car reserved for late afternoon, the only automatic they had left on the lot (manuals seem to be a bit more common here). I showed up to get my car and was soon in possession of the keys for a bright red Toyota Yaris. Cute as it was, it kinda made me miss my Jeep haha :)
Now, I had plans to drive in the not too distant future, so I reckon this was just a good practice run since I would be on somewhat familiar roads. I was lucky to have excellent weather for ninety percent of the whole trip (I got rained on a bit while driving through the Awakino Gorge on the trip home), and was pleasantly surprised to find that once you had a bit of time to adjust, it is not too difficult to drive on the wrong side. I had to make sure I really focused each time I turned right, since it is across traffic, but there was not much traffic as I was on the road so luckily I never had to deal with heavy traffic.
Most annoying thing about a backwards car: the turn signal is in the WRONG SPOT!! So, this meant every time I needed to turn, I would try to be courteous to other drivers and notify them of my intent and instead I would just end up turning on the windshield wipers. You are probably thinking that since I had a four hour drive one way I might have figured it out after an hour or so, and remember that the indicator stick is located on the right side of the steering wheel, but hey, old habits die hard. The gear shift was also on the wrong side (as it was logically located between the two front seats) so when I was ready to actually move after turning on the car, I found myself reaching for what always turned out to be the door handle. Otherwise, the strangest thing was feeling like the left side of my vehicle was extra wide. I do feel as if I have overcome a bit of a NZ hurdle by successfully driving across the island :)
In terms of no-vehicle or traffic law factors, the roads were not bad, if you are happy to drive on curvy, hilly, mountainey roads. Mt. Messenger, about 45 minutes from New Plymouth, and the only way to really get to the rest of the island, is a bit hairy. Follow this link to check it out :)
https://maps.google.co.nz/maps?q=mt+messenger+highway+3+new+zealand&ie=UTF-8&ei=KqkJU5DYOcislAWVjIHoCw&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ
My next driving adventure will be in a couple weeks time, while I'm on the South Island, I will keep you posted on how it goes!
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