My wife and I spent 4 (non-biking) weeks in New Zealand in November, 2012. We traveled by car, bus, boat, bicycle, kayak and on foot. Of the four weeks, one was spent on the North Island and the other three were on the South Island. We learned a lot of surprising things about New Zealand on our trip.

I've divided the following observations into two sections: Highways and General Bicycle Touring. Highways focuses on things I noticed about New Zealand roads. General Bicycle Touring includes items related to bike touring but not specifically about roads.

Let me start by saying that New Zealand is an amazing country with many unbelievably beautiful sights. While I would have love to tour on my bicycle there, and may go back and do so some day, using a car to go between the wonderful places wasn't a bad option, especially on those days when it rained and wind howled! In my time there, I saw about a dozen loaded bicycle tourists on the road.

Highways

1) Cars have the right of way
We were walking through town with friends who pointed out the rules for crossing the street on foot. The most important rule, they said, was that cars have the right of way in New Zealand. Drivers do not expect you to walk in front of them, even if you are in a crosswalk. If you do, they will honk at you and not slow down! In fact, many crosswalks in New Zealand are combined with speed bumps so that cars have to slow down when approaching them.

Crosswalks are never at the corners of roads. They are often in the middle of the street. Other times, they are offset from the corner. Many places that look like crosswalks (which are rarely marked on the roads) are simply speed bumps that people walk on.

Giving car drivers the right of way on the road seems like such a bad idea that I was shocked when I heard about it. Combining aggressive driving with an entitled right of way adds up to dangerous conditions and is likely one of the main reasons why New Zealand is known as a risky place to ride a bike.

2) There are no shoulders on New Zealand highways
We drove all around the South Island and no matter what kind of highway we were on there was little to no shoulder. For the most part, the white fog line was at the end of the asphalt. On average, I'd say, the shoulder was 1 foot or less.

On roads that did have some space at the side of the highway, it wasn't a permanent fixture. These shoulders would come and go due to passing lanes, trees, guard rails, etc.

While the traffic on most of the roads was light, it wasn't zero. Empty roads means higher speeds, as well, though the stated maximum speed is 100 KPH (62 MPH). Also, it might be my imagination, but it seemed to me that the roads were narrower there, as well.

The only safe way to ride on New Zealand roads, in my opinion, is with the constant use of a rearview mirror. It would also be a good idea to be prepared to ride off the road should a particularly aggressive driver refuse to move over when going by.

3) New Zealand has only 2 lane roads.
With the exception of a few busy highways, all the roads in New Zealand are 2 lanes. The only multi-lane road we saw was Highway 1 close to Christchurch. Mostly, the extra lane was a passing lane that alternated in both directions. Note that there was a wide shoulder on this highway that went away completely and turned into the passing lane!

It didn't matter if it was a single digit, double digit, or unnumbered road, they were all 2 (narrow) lanes. There were some smaller roads that didn't have any lines on them that probably were barely able to handle 2 cars in opposite directions. But, these had very little traffic.

4) Drunk driving seems to be a serious problem in New Zealand
Drunk driving is a menace in all places. But, there seems to be a problem of it in New Zealand. I base this on two observations. First, there are multiple signs on every road about the dangers of drinking and driving. One sign, in particular, caught my attention:

D R I N K
D r I v E

Second, every time I read a local newspaper, there seemed to be articles about people who had an accident, died, injured someone and alcohol was involved.

Frankly, seeing all those signs made me nervous driving a car!

5) There are very few stops signs in New Zealand
At virtually all intersections in New Zealand, there are Give Way signs (an inverted triangle on the road). It is very unusual to see a Stop sign. As a San Franciscan, where pretty much every intersection has a Stop sign, I never did get accustomed to rolling through intersections and merging onto roads with only a glance in the opposite direction.

There are also a fair number of roundabouts where several roads meet, usually in towns. These are completely controlled by right of way. Those on busy town roads would require much caution in crossing on a bicycle.

While I didn't ride a bike on the roadway, I assume that drivers in New Zealand are like those in the US, in that, they don't see bicyclists when they look for cars before going forward. This is a problem when there are Stop signs. I bet it is worse in a place with only Give Way signs.

6) There are many one-lane bridges in New Zealand
Regardless of the kind of road, numbered highway, single lane, or dirt, it was common to have to cross a stream or river on a one-lane bridge. These were often long, up to half a kilometer, and very narrow. The bridges were marked so that one direction had the right of way. I never saw a bicycle on a bridge when a car was going the other direction, but can imagine that it might cause a problem as on many of them there wasn't enough room for both a car and bicycle.

While there is light traffic on most of the roads, it isn't always possible to see the other side of the bridge and a certain amount of road etiquette is necessary to make these bridges work. In the vast majority of bridges, there was no one on the other side when we arrived. On a bike, there might be two problems. First, a vehicle might come onto the bridge while someone was biking over in the same (or other) direction and there wouldn't be enough room for them to pass. Second, vehicle drivers might become impatient waiting for a bicycle rider to finish crossing the bridge, which might cause some uncomfortable interactions.

All of these point to the need for bike tourists to be *very* careful when riding on New Zealand roads. There likely won't be a safe place on the road to ride and may not even be a place to pull off the road in an emergency. The only way to be safe is to be hyper-aware of what is going on around you and, especially, who is coming up behind.

General Bicycle Touring

7) New Zealand was expensive
In November, 2012, the NZ$ cost about 80 US cents. While this helped a bit with the prices, there was very little that we bought that seemed inexpensive. The cheapest gas we saw was NZ$2.12 a liter. Clothes and other goods we saw in stores were all way above what we would pay in San Francisco. Even wool items were pricey! In fact, the only item that seemed reasonable was Kiwi fruits!

Restaurant meals were also costly. We often paid close to NZ$100 for dinner, without wine. Lunch was cheaper but rarely less than NZ$50 for two.

Food in stores was expensive, too. It was hard to get out of a supermarket with just a few items for less than NZ$50. Some things were particularly costly. One example is cheese, which was always about NZ$10 for a small block.

On the other hand, motels seemed "reasonably" priced. While we never paid less than NZ$120 for a room for the night, we were in the high tourist season and the places were always nice and had kitchenettes. We didn't stay in backpacker places, which abound, or seek out other alternatives, such as couchsurfing.

One saving grace was Whittaker Chocolate bars. Not only are these made in New Zealand but the chocolate is very good and cheap.

8) Subway sandwich shops in most larger towns
I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Subway shops could be found in most good sized towns. That is not to say that you should expect to find a Subway in every town as there are lots of tiny villages in New Zealand that have no services, let alone a sandwich shop.

The prices at the Subway were reasonable, though higher than the US, where a 12 inch sandwich cost about NZ$12. The best news was that every shop offered the veggie patty, my favorite.

9) There are long distances between places of resupply in New Zealand's South Island
Most of New Zealand's 4 million people live in the North Island. The rest live wide dispersed in the South Island. While there are a few larger towns, such as Christchurch, Nelson, Invercargill, Blenheim, most of the people live in villages or in the countryside.

It is not unusual for a village, whose name is on the map, to have no services useful to a bicycle tourist. Further, it's not unusual for there to be several such villages on a road, one after the other. We were driving in a car and often had problems finding (an open) cafe or restaurant to eat or a place to buy food.

If you are planning a bike tour on the South Island, be sure to find out what services are available at various towns and villages along your route. Don't assume that there is anything to buy at a place just because its name is on the map.

10) Organic food is not readily available in New Zealand
We try to eat organic foods whenever possible at home. Since every place we stayed in New Zealand had a kitchenette, at least, we bought and prepared much of our own food. We were able to find some organic products, such as soy milk (always sweetened) and yogurt, but virtually nothing else. The only place we found a few organic vegetables was at a farmer's market stall in Nelson.

11) Bicycle shops seemed plentiful
While I had no need to visit a bicycle shop, I did notice them. Every good sized town had at least one, often more, bicycle shop. This was certainly true in towns, such as Te Anau, that were tiny but were tourist oriented.

12) Public rest rooms in New Zealand are widely available and clean
It was much easier to find a rest room then a place to eat in New Zealand! The ones I visited were always clean and well-stocked with paper and soap. Most even had hot air hand driers but only cold water, so for those who clean themselves in sinks, be sure to bring your own towels.

The rest rooms were well signed and often appeared along the road. They were also marked on local road maps.

13) The wind can be very strong in New Zealand
There were several days while I was in New Zealand that the wind was strong enough to force me to take a step or grab onto something to keep my balance when a gust hit me. Even though I was driving a car, there were times when I could feel the wind affect how it handled, even at slow speeds. Many times, I wondered what it would be like trying to make headway into such a wind.

While my short time there isn't representative, I would be very careful about selecting a route without taking the prevailing wind directions into account. Also, unlike many countries, there are few, if any, alternative ways to travel in New Zealand. This limits a bike rider's options should a very strong headwind appear.

Of the dozen, or so, bike tourists I saw, all the ones riding against the strong headwinds were making very slow progress and didn't look happy.

14) The roads in New Zealand can be very steep
There are few flat road in New Zealand's South Island. In addition, roads that climb passes often have very steep sections that can last for 1 or 2 kilometers. We drove up some (near Haast Pass or between Wanaka and Queenstown, for example) that would have been very hard to conquer on a loaded (or unloaded) bicycle.

When combined with narrow, shoulderless, and often curvy roads, it could also be a bit dangerous should there be some traffic while someone was struggling up these grades. When route planning, be sure to look carefully at the uphill sections when choosing a direction or road to take.

15) There are 2 post offices in New Zealand
For some reason, New Zealand has privatized their post office. There are two different systems for mailing and stamps for one don't work for the other. You have to be aware when you buy stamps that they only work in one kind of mail box: red or blue. The old postal services lives in stores with red and white sign and the word Postie on them.

Putting the wrong stamp in the wrong box means that your mail will be delayed as one postal system has to move your letter or package to the other system before it can be sent. I don't recall seeing many, if any, post boxes on corners or anywhere but in front of the Postie stores.

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