High Adventure On New Zealand Highways

When road touring in New Zealand simply getting there can be an adventure all its own, with one way bridges, road works, sheep and cattle on the road.

One of the most popular types of touring holiday in New Zealand, for locals as well as overseas visitors, is self-drive camper-vanning. There’s plenty of open country, most of it accessible by road, and numerous holiday parks with all the modern conveniences, as well as more rustic camping spots available.

Road touring in New Zealand, though, is not without its hazards. Often, simply getting there can be an adventure all its own.

Traffic jams, for example. Outside of the major city centres traffic jams are virtually non-existent, although you might find yourself trapped in a line of vehicles following another slow-moving one. You’re trapped because almost all roads in New Zealand, even some major highways, are narrow, two-lane (one lane in each direction), winding, undulating tracks which follow the contours of the land. Scenic, yes – but not much of an opportunity to get round a slow-coach.

Fine weather is the time for holidaying. Unfortunately, it is also the time for Road Works. It’s here that we find one of the most uniquely kiwi traffic jams.

Often a particular road is the only way to get from point A to point B, so no detour is available and closing it off to traffic is not an option. Because so much of the roading is either perched on the edge of the sea or a cliff, or gouged out of the side of a hill, there is no room to construct a temporary bypass either.

Enter good old kiwi ingenuity – dig up and repair one lane at a time. A team of two road workers sporting bright orange jackets is employed to control the flow of traffic. One is stationed at either end of the bottleneck. They each have a sign mounted on a pole. One side of the sign is green and says “Go”, the other side is red and says “Stop”.

Often you can’t see the complete length of the road works because of a hill or a curve. Then the road workers communicate by walkie-talkie to coordinate their efforts. They both show the “Go”sign to the traffic travelling in one direction. When they are sure that all traffic going in that direction has passed through, they turn the signs and allow traffic in the other direction to “Go”. The beauty of this simple system is that it works.

Once you get past the road works you’re likely to be confronted with another quaint feature of New Zealand highway traffic – the one lane bridge.

There are heaps of them on the secondary roads in New Zealand. Because of the topography, the land is riddled with myriads of small streams and gullies. Many of these bridges are very narrow, barely more than a car-width wide.

People who are new to the concept don’t understand the etiquette (actually the law) of crossing a one lane bridge. On the side of the approach that has the right of way there is a a blue rectangular sign with a white arrow pointing upward and a red one pointing downward. On the other side of the bridge where it is necessary to give way, in a sign with a red circle on it a black arrow points down, and a red points up. This determines who has the right-of-way to cross the bridge first if there is oncoming traffic to contend with.

Some kiwis commute regularly on roads which have one lane bridges along the route. They have perfected the fine art of determining just how close an oncoming vehicle which has the right of way can be before they have to ‘give way.’ Often it becomes a race to see who gets there first. Not for the faint-hearted.

Most of these bridges are relatively short, only a few car-lengths, but a few of them have a considerable span. In Taranaki in the North Island near New Plymouth the one lane bridge crossing the Mokau River is so long that it has passing bays so cars travelling in one direction can pull over and let oncoming traffic through.

Folklore has it that originally the bridge didn’t have passing bays. They were added after two locals caused a massive traffic jam when they met head on in the middle. They didn’t crash, but each argued that the other should give way and reverse off the bridge.

If that’s not hair-raising enough for you, there are also several one lane bridges that cater for rail as well as road traffic. The lane you’re driving on is also the railroad tracks.

On the main highway just north of Hokitika on the West Coast of the South Island there’s not one, but two of these rail- car-one-lane bridges. These bridges are long because they cross rivers at the point where they empty into the sea.

Awatere road/rail bridge Click here for a larger version Photo source Alister Hunt

There is another rail-car-one-lane bridge on the East Coast on the main highway between Blenheim and Seddon. This one is a little less scary since the train crossing is above the road crossing.

The North Island has its share of rail-car-one-lane bridges as well. When I was researching for this article, a friend of mine related an incident that occurred on one in the Bay of Plenty near Whakatane. She and her friends were cycling across the bridge when a train came through. They pressed themselves and their bicycles against the parapet and prayed that they wouldn’t be hit by something protruding from the side of the train.

As if road works and one lane bridges didn’t add enough adventure to your road touring in New Zealand, there’s the problem of livestock.

By tradition, and by law, dairy and sheep farmers in New Zealand are permitted to drive their stock across or down the road when shifting them from paddock to paddock. Some dairy farmers do this twice a day, at milking time. When this is happening, it’s not unusual for the entire breadth of the road to be awash with a sea of swaying rumps.

The recommended way to deal with this is to stop and allow the farmer and his dogs time to clear a path for you to drive through. If this assistance is not forthcoming, you can slowly nudge your way through the flock or herd. This is easier with sheep than it is with cows. Sheep will stream away from you. Cows tend to mill around and are just as likely to run into you as away from you. For adventure touring in New Zealand, travelling the highways and byways can provide some impromptu thrills. Imagine coming upon some road works being done on a one lane bridge at milking time. Is that a train whistle I hear? To read more of Beth Austin’s writing go to her home page.
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