| Motoring Discussion > A message from the other side ...... | Miscellaneous |
| Thread Author: Dulwich Estate | Replies: 2 |
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New Wed 28 Mar 12 18:40
A message from the other side ...... - Dulwich Estate
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.... of the world. Been there, done that but I didn’t get the T shirt as it was made in either Thailand or China but not New Zealand. Twenty-three days driving, 3200 miles, about £390 spent on (91) petrol and 44.3 mpg in an eleven year old Toyota Sprinter XE Vintage Limited. I think it’s a Corolla type, 1600cc or so and an auto. We hired it through Rentalcars.com before we left and got a good deal at about £25 a day all in with no extras, full insurance and no excesses. We collected it in Auckland and dropped it off in Christchurch. I had already found Ace Rentals offering their SuperSaver deal direct but Rentalcars came out a tad cheaper than going to Ace themselves. Having checked out Ace, I knew the car was likely to be around 10 years old, a bit rough and have a high mileage so I was quite happy to book through Rentalcars.com. But a note of caution - Rentalcars.com did not let me know I was renting a banger, so if I’d just booked with them thinking I’d got a good price for a regular rental motor I would have been mightily disappointed when I collected it. The odometer was reading just shy of 300,000 km at pick up and we added another 5,000 or so. The engine used no oil in our time but the performance was feeble and auto box just dreadful – how I missed my Audi Multitronic. The maximum speed limit is 100 kph which is around 60mph and I pretty much kept to it unlike plenty of NZ drivers who seemed determined to overtake at any opportunity: blind bends, humped roads, double centre lines and so on. Some roads in the scenic parts were very twisty with numerous alpine style bends and hairpins so I pulled over as often as I could, especially when the poor Toyota just didn’t have the guts to proceed at the pace the locals required. Very few drivers thanked me – is this a NZ or a tourist thing ? One Sunday morning we got pulled over at a random breath check and I was asked to count to ten while talking into what looked like a dictating machine. No problem naturally but it did raise the heart rate briefly ! I got caught out once by the stupid give way to oncoming traffic turning right when you are turning left rule. The other driver gave a blast of the horn when I deprived him of priority. Thankfully that rule is being changed and NZ motoring rules will then mirror UK ones. Once or twice in towns I found a parking slot by driving onto the wrong side of the road and parking facing the wrong way. Fortunately a friendly Kiwi saw me the second time and let me know I was breaking the law so I changed my parking style after that. I don’t think that idea would work in London though. When filling up with fuel, most times someone would do it for me and they’d get quite surprised when I said I was used to doing it myself. BP stations are an exact copy of the ones in UK except for the water buckets and screen wipe blades which were in every garage. Be grateful for the quality of ferries on UK / France Channel crossing - the NZ ferries are old, very old (1980s) and shabby. It was interesting the see the lower deck laid out with railway lines and hardwood planks in-between. We sailed together with what looked like an entire railway train loaded with containers. We took the old car up (and down) Baldwin Street in Dunedin, the world’s steepest street – crikey, it is steep ! I reckon only about one in ten visitors actually drove up and down it – whimps. They just gawped. Ace were very good when the car was returned – no finetooth comb check of dents and scratches, just a fuel level check. The entire process took less than 10 minutes. Apart from the driving, other observations are: supermarket check-out people don’t have a chair and so stand and always pack your bags. I don’t think we saw anyone over 40 years old on the check-outs. No mention of limiting the free plastic bags either and you can buy as many 100 watt incandescent light bulbs as you want for around 50p a time. Four hot cross buns for about 3 quid was a surprise as were Kiwi fruit from Italy and USA That will do for now, after 6 flights, 47 hours in the hour and losing a day of my life forever (round the world westwards) I can’t think of anything more just now. |
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New Wed 28 Mar 12 22:49
A message from the other side ...... - Dave_
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Brilliant, fascinating report DE. Surprising how similar somewhere the other side of the world can be. >> BP stations are an exact copy of the ones in UK except for the water buckets and screen wipe blades >> which were in every garage It used to be like that here, when petrol stations were petrol stations not mini supermarkets, off licences or coffee bars :( I often confuse the cashiers these days by asking to borrow a bucket or watering can, or when I try to find something really obscure in their shop, like a brake light bulb... Last edited by: Dave_TDCi on Wed 28 Mar 12 at 22:49
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New Thu 29 Mar 12 09:39
A message from the other side ...... - L'escargot
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"Baldwin Street, in Dunedin, New Zealand, is considered the world's steepest residential street. It is located in the residential suburb of North East Valley, 3.5 kilometres (2.2 miles) northeast of Dunedin's city centre. A short straight street a little under 350 metres (1,150 ft) long, Baldwin Street runs east from the valley of the Lindsay Creek up the side of Signal Hill towards Opoho, rising from 30 m (98 ft) above sea level at its junction with North Road to 100 m (330 ft) above sea level at the top, an average slope of slightly more than 1:5. Its lower reaches are only moderately steep, and the surface is asphalt, but the upper reaches of this cul-de-sac are far steeper, and surfaced in concrete (200 m (660 ft) long), for ease of maintenance (bitumen—in either chip seal or asphalt—would flow down the slope on a warm day) and for safety in Dunedin's frosty winters. At its maximum, the slope of Baldwin Street is about 1:2.86 (19° or 35%). That is, for every 2.86 metres travelled horizontally, the elevation changes by 1 metre." Crikey! |
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