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On The Other Side Of The Tasman Part 3: The South Island
The 2011 Rugby World Cup has kicked off with a bang, as it always does, and the Wallabies have (thankfully) won their first game against Italy. It won’t be until later that they go down south, and for those of you who are planning to head over later rather than sooner, this gives you time to plan your South Island road trip.
If you’re starting your trans-Tasman trip in the South Island, Christchurch will be your starting point. The roads here are not as “munted” as they used to be just after the spate of earthquakes, but they’re not quite as smooth as they used to be, but they soon smooth out and look like normal roads again. The Wallabies are playing in Nelson, and you’ve got three main ways of getting there by road. Each of these can be done in a day, or a day and a half if you want to stop off anywhere and/or go the long way.
The first – and most direct way – of driving from Christchurch to Nelson to watch the Wallabies show the Russians how to play rugby is to go via the Lewis Pass. To take this route, you head north along State Highway 1 from Christchurch until you get to a turn-off westwards (State Highway (SH) 7, which is very clearly marked. As you go along this road, you’ll get off the (comparatively) long straights of the Canterbury Plains and get into the hill country before too long. After winding through the first little pass in the middle of the wine-growing country, you’ll get to another major intersection, one which leads to Hanmer Springs. Hanmer Springs is well worth a side-trip, with luxurious natural hot springs, and it’s going to be the base for the Wallabies for four days (24th to the 27th September), so it’ll be a good place to pick up a few autographs. If you want natural hot water but without the celebrities, you can get this further along SH7 at Maruia Springs. These springs give their name to Springs Junction, where you’ll leave SH7 at a fork in the road and go along SH65. This road winds northwards through lots of hills until reaching Nelson.
If you prefer coast to mountains, you’ll probably want to stay on SH1. You won’t avoid mountains altogether, but you’ll still get some interesting twists and turns on the road. This road leads up past Kaikoura. The road here is quite busy, as it’s a major trucking route, and it’s reasonably narrow – take your chances to pass B-trains when you can. Also watch out for seals, which can take it into their furry heads that the road is a good place to sit. You will follow this road to Blenheim, which is another wine-growing capital, and find SH6, which will take you to Nelson. If you miss the turn-off in the middle of town, you can get back onto SH6 a bit further out of town by taking SH65. Watch out for the roundabout in the middle of Blenheim with a train track running through it – the train does not follow the roundabout give way rules!
There is another route between Christchurch and Nelson: this is the Molesworth Track (also known as the Rainbow Station or St Arnaud track), which runs through a working farm. It’s a 4×4 track and rather rocky, but well worth it if you want to put a bit of adventure into your Christchurch to Nelson drive. The track is open year round, but there is a small charge and a locked gate to deal with – contact the NZ Department of Conservation for more details and/or read the brochure at http://www.doc.govt.nz/upload/documents/parks-and-recreation/places-to-visit/nelson-marlborough/molesworth-brochure.pdf.
The long way of getting to Nelson from Christchurch will take you through the most dramatic mountain scenery – the sort we don’t really get over here. This route is the Arthur’s Pass route, which follows the road taken to the goldfields back in the pioneer days. To take this route, go south along SH1 for a short way past the airport (and I mean short!) and take SH73. This will lead you through the Canterbury Plains into the mountains – and depending on the weather over the next few weeks, you might want to stop off at one of the many skifields along this route, such as Broken River, Cragieburn and Porter Heights. Beware of keas (mountain parrots) if you stop off at Arthur’s Pass: these birds are nosey little #$%^#^ with very sharp beaks that are capable of making mincemeat of soft-top convertible hoods, windscreen wipers and other softish bits of cars – they’ve been known to completely shred bike tyres, stranding unwary cyclists. The road after Arthur’s Pass itself isn’t quite as epic as it used to be thanks to the massive feat of engineering known as the Otira Viaduct. Prior to the viaduct going in, the road down to the West Coast involved very steep grades and hairpin turns – not for the faint hearted or for heavy trucks! Some, however, might say that the Viaduct has taken a bit of the driving fun out of the trip – judge for yourself. Once you’re down on the West Coast, turn right at Kumara junction and head through Greymouth and the old goldfields. You can take SH7 here back to Springs Junction, or you can continue along SH6 to Westport, where you’ll keep going along SH6 as it winds through to Nelson and joins up with SH65, winding through more hills to Nelson.
On The Other Side Of The Tasman Part 2: North Island Drives
Those who plan on visiting New Zealand to follow the Wallabies during their upcoming Rugby World Cup campaign are likely to have one North Island road trip on the agenda: a trip down from Auckland (where the Wallabies play Ireland) to Wellington (where they’re highly likely to beat the USA). This trip can be done in one day, but it pays to allow a night’s break in the middle. The trip from Auckland to Wellington is one of the classic New Zealand road trips, and you’ve got a number of ways to go about it.
The most straightforward way to get from Auckland to Wellington is via State Highway (SH) 1. This takes you down the middle
of the North Island for the bulk part and then the lower western side. It’s by far the most popular route, as it’s more direct. However, you don’t have to stick on this highway the whole way – you can choose to go down the east of Lake Taupo on SH1, or you can turn right south of Tokoroa and go down the less popular western shore following SH32, which has a lot more forest. The two routes meet up again at Turangi. After this, you get to what’s known as the “Desert Road”, but if you come from, say, Alice Springs, try not to snigger when you hear the locals calling it this – it’s not that much of a desert, but at least it has a striking cluster of active volcanoes. The volcanoes are unlikely to go up and close the roads, but the Desert Road can be closed by snow. This is unlikely in the middle of September, but isn’t impossible, so keep and eye on the weather forecast and take warm clothing if the weather looks a bit iffy. As you keep going south, things get a little tame (and the roads a little more crowded) as you get south of Bulls, but if you head east along SH3 to Palmerston North (notable for the wind farms – you can’t miss them) and through the Manawatu Gorge, you get onto SH2, which is more interesting from a driver’s perspective, as it’s got more hill work and corners to have fun with.
If you take SH2 all the way down, it’s a lot longer, but it goes through some more rugged bits of the country, and is the route to take if you like cornering and hills, as SH2 has plenty of these. This follows the coast of the Bay of Plenty and then cuts through the hill country to Gisborne, the first city in the world to see the sun, thanks to the International Date Line. If you’re really keen, you can go around all of East Cape via SH35. Fill up with petrol at Opotiki, take picnic food rather than expecting takeaways and book a night at Gisborne if you do. After Gisborne, SH2 crosses a few more sets of steep hills (watch out for wild goats on the road and for the very impressive railway bridge at Mohaka) before getting into tamer country around Napier and Hastings. If you’re fed up with hills at this stage, you can cut through the Manawatu Gorge to Palmerston North and get onto SH1 again, and get onto the highway into Wellington.
An alternative road trip starting from Auckland is to head north along the rest of SH1 to the very top of the North Island at Cape Reinga. You have to take a dirt road to get to the very northernmost tip, but a 4×4 isn’t necessary and you can do it in a little hatchback if you like.
Safety Systems Are Hotting Up
Sometimes it’s pretty hard keeping up with all the new doo-dads that are part of a new car’s comprehensive safety equipment list. Some of the new names are new for the sake of being new – to disguise the fact that they are safety systems that have been around for a while – sure, over time, the old has been refined. However, the new safety systems that Toyota, and others, are working on are pretty cool. Get a load of these features.
Toyota has announced that they have some vehicle safety advancements that focus on the older drivers and pedestrians. This is in response to the accident statistics, in Japan, that reveal that more than half of traffic deaths are of people aged 65 and over. Incredibly, Japanese statistics show that pedestrians account for more fatalities than vehicle occupants.
As well as protecting people inside and outside the car when a crash occurs, cars like Toyota are looking at monitoring the occupant’s health and helping them to avoid a crash in the first instance.
Toyota’s Emergency Response Technology deals with a driver who collapses at the wheel because of a heart attack or a sudden blackout. Obviously, this is a scenario that can cause very serious accidents. What the new technology does is it monitors cardiovascular functions through the driver’s grip on the steering wheel. This can detect risk situations. Toyota will continue their research on this amazing technology.
Pre-Crash Safety (PCS) is another biggie that Toyota is working on. PCS incorporates collision-avoidance technology to create a vehicle that is less likely to become involved in an accident. Toyota have progressed their system to the place where the system will predict when a collision is imminent and will initiate measures to reduce damage and the risk of occupant injury. With the use of radar and a miniature camera, the vehicle will monitor the road ahead and apply brakes if the driver doesn’t. How effective the end result is depends on road conditions and circumstances. Additions to this will be a system that will help the driver steer a safe course in an emergency. PCS would monitor locations of roadside obstacles and approaching vehicles to analyse, and respond, to collision risks and change any action, accordingly.
An Adaptive Driving Beam system has already been employed by many premium car manufacturers. This is a system that automatically dips the headlights when taillights are coming into view in your lane ahead of you or when the system detects an oncoming car in the opposite lane. Once no cars are detected ahead in either lane, the system automatically switches the headlights up to full beam again.
Jaguar has employed a pop-up-bonnet system that looks to protect pedestrians who are on course for a collision with the car’s front end. As the system detects the pedestrian ahead of the car, the rear-bonnet section rises up to create a gentler slope at the time of impact. This technology makes for a better impact (no impact is nice) and reduces the level of head injury for the unfortunate pedestrian.
On The Other Side Of The Tasman Part 1: Plannung a Trup Un New Zealand
Quite a few Australians are thinking of heading over to the other side of the Tasman during the upcoming Rugby World Cup. And quite a few of them are considering hiring cars to get around while they’re over there. What do you need to know about driving in New Zealand and what are some good road trips to do while you’re over there?
Driving in New Zealand is pretty similar to driving over here, and you can use your Australian driver’s licence without any problems if you’re only over here for the Rugby World Cup. You won’t have any hassles about remembering what side of the road to drive on – it’s just the same. The give way rules at intersections and roundabouts are considered to be unique but it’s not that different to what happens over here: if you’re turning left, give way to anything that’s going to conflict with you. If you’re turning right, give way to things going straight through. If you’re going straight through, give way to anything going straight through from your right. If you want more details, you can read about it on the NZ Transport Agency’s website.
Regarding fuel, you have the choice of 98 octane unleaded, 91 octane unleaded, diesel and LPG. CNG is available in the North Island only. Oddly, New Zealand doesn’t seem to have cottoned onto the idea of ethanol and ethanol blends much (at least not yet), so don’t go looking for these at the bowser. Fuel prices are higher than over here, even when you take the exchange rate into account, so it could be wiser to hire a more frugal vehicle – a little hatchback might be all you need. The garages tend to warn you if they’re the last one for a big stretch, although their big stretches aren’t as big as ours.
That’s the required stuff – now for the fun bits. What’s a good drive to do while you’re over there? New Zealand is tiny compared to Australia, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t get some good drives with good scenery. You can get from one end of the country to the other in a couple of days (provided the ferry crossing in the middle works out right), but most visitors like to take their time. Australia will be playing in a number of places: Auckland, Wellington and Nelson. Two of these are in the North Island, and one’s in the South Island, so you can plan your drive depending on where you want to go.
However, don’t feel limited to stick to the cities and towns where the Wallabies will be playing. There’s a lot of the country to
see, and you may as well make the most of it while you’re over there, especially if you’re down south. The fishing season will have just started, and you can probably find a bit of time to do a Lord of The Rings movie location trip if the fancy takes you that way.
If you want to take in both islands, give a little thought to how you’re going to get from north to south or vice versa. You can put a hired car on the ferry, but it may be easier to hire separate cars on each side of Cook Straight, depending on how much luggage you have – if you have a fair bit, keeping to the one car might be the easier option.
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