{"id":15577,"date":"2024-07-01T15:18:54","date_gmt":"2024-07-01T05:18:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/?p=15577"},"modified":"2024-07-22T08:32:11","modified_gmt":"2024-07-21T22:32:11","slug":"new-south-wales-and-new-zealand-spot-the-difference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/weird-stuff\/new-south-wales-and-new-zealand-spot-the-difference\/","title":{"rendered":"New South Wales and New Zealand: Spot The Difference"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Thinking of heading across the ditch to New Zealand this winter for a spot of skiing or sightseeing, picking up a rental car so you can travel according to your own fancies?  If you\u2019re heading over from New South Wales, you\u2019ll find that although a lot of things are the same when driving in New Zealand compared with back home, there are quite a few sneaky little differences that might trip you up.  Most of the road rules and road signs will be familiar, but some aren\u2019t and some are nonexistent. Here\u2019s a handful of some differences you might notice:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even in the middle of what passes for a city, there\u2019s way less congestion.<\/strong>\u00a0 In the busiest parts of town during rush hour, you\u2019ll get some congestion, but nothing like you\u2019ll find in the middle of Sydney.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People don\u2019t honk the horns half as much. <\/strong>\u00a0OK, someone might honk if the driver at the front of the queue is naughtily on their phone or daydreaming and doesn\u2019t notice that the light has turned green, but drivers seem more patient in, say, Christchurch than they are in Sydney and will jump on the horn a lot slower.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You don\u2019t get handy \u201cmerge ahead\u201d signs<\/strong>.\u00a0 Instead, you get Sign A in the diagram below. The idea is to “merge like a zip”, left-right-left-right, etc. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Pedestrian crossing (zebra crossing) signage is different.<\/strong> \u00a0The familiar sign with the pair of walking legs isn\u2019t on the zebra crossing itself, and you don\u2019t get the zigzag road markings leading up to the crossing. Instead, you get the warning sign (Sign B), with an orange dot on a stripy pole on the crossing (Sign C).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pedestrian refuge islands aren\u2019t signed.<\/strong>\u00a0 This means that at any time a centre island divides two lanes of traffic, there could be a lurking pedestrian hoping to cross.\u00a0 Keep your eyes open (and the pedestrian will be doing the same).\u00a0 Refuge islands with designated cut-downs for pedestrians are common near roundabouts. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Parking limits are in minutes, not hours.<\/strong>\u00a0 If you got all excited about a sign saying \u201cP5\u201d or \u201cP15\u201d, believing that you\u2019d be able to park there for 5 or 15 hours, I\u2019m sorry to disappoint you.\u00a0 You\u2019ve only got 5 or 15 minutes.\u00a0 If you\u2019re lucky, you can find signs giving you 90, 120, 180 or 240 minutes of parking (if you look hard enough), meaning 1\u00bd hours, 2 hours, 3 hours and 4 hours, respectively.\u00a0 Sign D is a typical example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re in an urban area, the speed limit is probably 50 km\/h<\/strong>.\u00a0 There aren\u2019t as many 60 km\/h sections.\u00a0 Local traffic areas don\u2019t exist, so assume that it\u2019s 50 km\/h unless told otherwise.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even on the motorway, you won\u2019t get to go 110 km\/h legally. <\/strong>At the time of writing, the Kiwi Powers That Be are discussing the introduction of 110 km\/h sections on some main motorways.\u00a0 However, this is still in the discussion stage, so if you head over this winter, you\u2019ll have to keep your speed to a maximum of 100 km\/h when in rural areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

School zones don\u2019t have the times handily displayed.  If the signs are flashing, the reduced speed limit (either 30 or 40 km\/h) applies; if they\u2019re not flashing, the usual speed limit (usually 50 km\/h) applies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speed cameras are sneaky.<\/strong>\u00a0 Permanent ones \u2013 and there are some \u2013 don\u2019t have warning signage.\u00a0 There have been calls from lobby groups to introduce signs warning you that there are permanent speed cameras in position, but there aren\u2019t any yet.\u00a0 You may, however, see some signs warning you about red light cameras.\u00a0 NZTA has taken to calling both speed cameras and red light cameras by the twee name of \u201csafety cameras\u201d but the majority of Kiwi think this is a cringeworthy attempt to not call a spade a ruddy spade.\u00a0 The NZTA Journey Planner website has a map showing you where the mobile ones are, so check this when you plan your journey (it\u2019s a good idea to check it even if your right foot isn\u2019t on the heavy side, as it will also tell you if roads have been closed or if there are major roadworks underway).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Witches\u2019 hats everywhere.\u00a0 <\/strong>The roading contractors just LOVE witches\u2019 hats and will put up heaps of them even weeks before the actual road works take place, and these will probably be the last thing they take away.\u00a0 They\u2019ll also start appearing up to 1 km ahead of the road works (in rural areas).\u00a0 They\u2019ll also put up insane numbers of the things.\u00a0 I have no idea what they\u2019re thinking.\u00a0 Do they think that if there\u2019s a car-sized gap in the middle of a long row of witches\u2019 hats that I\u2019m going to decide to cross the line?\u00a0 Incidentally, not many Kiwis will use the word \u201cwitches\u2019 hat\u201d but will call them a \u201croad cone\u201d. \u00a0Near universities, you may spot some in unusual places, such as up trees.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thinking of heading across the ditch to New Zealand this winter for a spot of skiing or sightseeing, picking up a rental car so you can travel according to your own fancies?  If you\u2019re heading over from New South Wales, you\u2019ll find that although a lot of things are the same when driving in New […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[227,86,58,3139,56],"tags":[7940,7938,2500,7939,7945,7941,5751,4525,7943,7944,300,310,7942],"class_list":["post-15577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-australia","category-blog","category-driving","category-uncategorized","category-weird-stuff","tag-merge","tag-new-zealand","tag-parking","tag-pedestrian-crossing","tag-red-light-cameras","tag-refuge-islands","tag-road-signs","tag-road-works","tag-rural-driving","tag-signage","tag-speed-cameras","tag-speed-limits","tag-urban-driving"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15577"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15577\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15594,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15577\/revisions\/15594"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.privatefleet.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}