Driving with Jucy……
New Zealand is the home of extreme adventure activities. Bungy-jumping, white water rafting, zip-lining……and more……are readily available all over the north island where we have visited. I even saw a place where one can stand up inside of a giant plastic ball and roll it down a hill while inside.
Hmm…..not for me!
But I say, who needs to take part in one of these extreme adventures?! All you need to do is to drive 5 people and their respective pieces of luggage……
…..through New Zealand in a “small-ish”, bright green and purple 8-passenger van.
It’s a sight to behold and an interesting challenge!
The driving pattern here is a very different and intriguing experience for those of us with “right side” driving orientation. The traffic pattern moves on the “wrong” side of the road. Or, at least it’s “wrong” from the perspective of an American driver. Add to this the curving roads of the mountainous terrain and the narrow winding city streets and you have the makings of an “extreme adventure” extraordinaire!
This thrill will last you a lifetime!
Driving was one experience I definitely wanted to have while still with my group in New Zealand. I am hoping to drive in Tasmania at the end of trip when I am on my own, and I wanted to have some time to practice while I still had some people to help me with navigation.
I have now had lots of practice driving and navigating which is equally as challenging. In fact, we have all had lots of practice on everything. And, we have all made the same mistakes.
Because the driving is on the left side of the road……..
……the cars are also set up to accommodate this. In the front of the car, the driver’s seat is on the right and the passenger’s seat is on the left. Similarly, the levers on the car are reversed as well. The turn signal is on the right side of the steering column and the windshield wipers are on the left side. This works fine until a driving challenge rears its ugly head and there is a need to act quickly to turn on the turn signal. All of us have turned on the windshield wipers, instead of the turn signal, over and over again…..and left them on as we averted the predicament…whatever it was. Sometimes we even accelerated the pace of the wipers as the event mounted in urgency, thinking we were turning the turn signal on or off…..or possibly thinking it would help. I, of course, immediately break into a laughing jag every time this happens to me, which is debilitating. It’s also not helpful! I am laughing right now as I am writing this thinking about how silly we must all look as we do this. But, there is nothing to do about it! It’s all part of the learning curve.
I will also add that the windshield wiper on the back window is permanently turned on. We can’t figure out how to turn it off. It’s OK. We have needed to clear the back window, as it has been quite rainy here. So, we just let it go at its intermittent pace.
The other thing that is easy to do is to drift off too far to the left. The driver’s position in the car is situated near the middle line on the road. So when a large truck comes at you from a distance, it seems that the truck is going to make direct contact with the front of the car. The natural instinct is to move away from it to the left. In my effort to move away from the oncoming trucks….and cars….. I have, so far, hit a traffic cone and run into a curb. One other of us has done this, as well. And, we have all run into the ditch on the left side, which is also disorienting.
The other major challenge is the traffic circle. It’s fairly easy to drive on the straight away following the lines on the road or the car in front. But, once you hit the traffic circle, all bets are off. The shuttle driver that brought me in from Auckland told me this would be the hardest thing we would do. He was right.
We have all had challenging roads to negotiate on our turns as “chauffeur”. Yesterday, I had a double whammy. We went over the mountain pass from Wellington to Martinborough. This was a 2 lane delight….with minimal passing lanes that allow for faster drivers to move ahead of those who are more cautious. The road was reminiscent of Route 1 in California, with its cliff-hanging winding roads boasting a deep drop to the bottom that was very close to the side of the car. To top it off, it was pouring rain. As we got closer to the top, we thought we were driving in fog. It was a grouping of clouds. Very low visibility. I spent a lot of time pulling off the road for others to pass.
I also had the pleasure of driving up the San Francisco-like narrow and elevated streets in Wellington. At one point yesterday, I was going around a curved street that went up a hill. It allowed for 2 way traffic. But, it was only 1 lane wide. There were cars parked up on the curb on the left facing away from me and right side parked cars facing towards me. At the curve, I had to pass through a space with an allowance of about 6 inches on either side. As I looked over this situation, I said to my 2 traveling companions,
“I don’t think I can do this.”
They both started to get out of the car to take the wheel. But, I declined. I wanted to be able to maneuver this. And, I did. But, it wasn’t easy.
What I can say is that all of these shenanigans have caused a great deal of laughing among the group, which does not improve the driving. But, it does improve the quality of the moment! I can also say that by the end of our time together, everyone in the group, except for our companion who opted not to drive, will be an expert on left side driving by the time we leave.
The one thing I can’t say is why the other drivers move away from our bright, lime green Jucy car with the voluptuous lady painted on the side when they see us coming.
I just can’t figure it out!
Look out everyone……
….we are driving with Jucy!
Travel With Betsy 
March 8, 2018 at 11:46 am |
As I was learning to drive in Ireland, I expressed my concerns to a Taxi driver about their traffic circles. He remarked that all I had to do when approaching, was to watch out for the traffic on the right! Everybody else was doing the same thing so it made calming sense not to freak out every time we came upon a circle—& it worked! You don’t waste your time, energy & nerves, looking for traffic in both directions, just the right. And after a couple of approaches to the traffic circles, you will learn to enjoy them instead of fear them. I now practice what I learned in NC, as they have quite a few circles instead of traffic lights —I love them! Now here in the USA, I just have to remember to only look left!
March 9, 2018 at 3:40 am |
Good advice! We are getting used to it! But, it is certainly different!
March 10, 2018 at 3:17 am |
That’s a funny story Betsy….hope it doesn’t rain the whole time…I’ve seen The Jucy vans and have always w/o dered about them♥️