Driving in New Zealand

Much of our New Zealand trip was a major road trip. After being confined to our 25 miles of island paradise, it felt so good to hit the open road. In the end, we covered 3500 kilometers (2200 miles)! And of those kilometers, I drove for about 250 of them. As far as driving in New Zealand goes, I had a lot going against me. So many things, in fact, that I came up with a list to rationalize my lack of driving:

a.) The steering wheel is on the right side of car and you drive on the left side of the road.

b.) I have been driving at a maximum of 25 miles per hour for almost two years. And in reality, most days 11 mph is my top speed. Cruising along at 65 mph in NZ literally felt like we were flying.
c.) Nearly every road in NZ, including the highways, are 2 lane, extremely curvy roads.
d.) Driving is simply not my best skill in life.

So, yes, Paul drove and drove and drove some more. Thanks, Paul. He did very well, too, except for a few little things here and there. It really cracked Emma up when he would go to turn on the turn signal and accidentally turn on the windshield wipers instead (even these are in the opposite spots). Emma would laugh and say, “Dad, it’s not even raining!”

We coined a new phrase in New Zealand: Automotive Narcolepsy. Just about every time we were in the car for more than 6 minutes, it would become very quiet and I would turn to see Emma sound asleep in the backseat. The child took at least two naps every day in the car. It wasn’t that she was bored… Emma loved spotting all the roadside sheep and she has quite the imagination, even contained in a single square of the backseat of a car. She just seemed to be lolled to sleep by the lack of stop and go driving on a Samoan road filled with potholes.