Tourist drivers

hfc2, Jan 7, 5:42am
Came back from Te Anau today after a roadie to beautiful Milford Sound ( where there were so many tourists you could not get a park ). Some of the driving I witnessed was horrific, they don't know what yellow lines mean, drive a ridicously slow speeds , brake hard into corners, have no courtesy for the trail of 30 vehicles behind them. I am surprised there are not more deaths or serious crashes.
We need in my humble opinion to fix this problem somehow before your family or mine gets t boned or has a head on. Your thoughts.
bill-robinson, Jan 7, 5:45am
do not drive to tourist spots
jantar, Jan 7, 5:53am
Most accidents on the Milford road are caused by foreign tourists. And mainly due to the reasons the OP has witnessed. Any time I go to Milford I try and avoid leaving Te Anau between 8:00 - 11:00 am, and I either return from Milford before 12:30 pm or after 5:00 pm.
franc123, Jan 7, 5:58am
Govts making too much money from tax on rental car and camper fuel, and of course all that delicious GST on the hire fees and everything else tourists spend money on to do anything about it, its a volume and numbers game to them especially when agricultural income is less certain than it used to be. Stuff innocent locals coming the other way on the road and the environment, it never used to be an issue when 90% of them were all in tour buses and using more upmarket accommodation, and we aimed at a better class of tourist from, shall we say, 'other' target markets whose average spend was actually higher.
hfc2, Jan 7, 5:59am
You have valid point.
2sheddies, Jan 7, 6:07am
No, we should be rightly able to drive anywhere we like in our own country, without fear of being wiped out by incompetent overseas tourists. Sometimes we Kiwis like to take in the sights in our own backyard too!
cabrio1, Jan 7, 6:15am
True , but I see cars in ditches every day on my route to work.
On their roofs, through fences, facing the wrong way In ditches, t boned, over roundabouts into Armco,bet none of them are tourists.
What about being safe from useless homegrown drivers?
tony9, Jan 7, 6:18am
And most drivers are foreign tourists. There is a consistent correlation between the % of tourists drivers and the % of tourist accidents. If anything, the % of local drivers involved in accidents is slightly higher than the % of local drivers.
2sheddies, Jan 7, 10:08am
Well that is a very valid point.
richardmayes, Jan 7, 10:48am
Has this situation suddenly got a LOT worse than it used to be?

I drove Te Anau - Milford - Te Anau in my 1970s Triumph in about 2001 or 2002. That was a good day! Don't recall any crazy driving - apart from a 4x4 with 'kiwi as' occupants who did not understand (or care) how a one lane bridge works.
gsimpson, Jan 7, 11:57am
I don't know if the standard of tourist driving is worse just maybe more are independent driving rather than bus tours. Spent a bit of time in that area 15-20 years ago when there were more gravel roads and virtually all vehicle accidents I came across were tourists. Got passed on Milford road (unsealed) by a car doing 100kmh and I was only happy at 80kmh due to the loose gravel. Car in question went straight off the next corner. Not uncommon occurrence but didn't get into the news as normally just dented pride and car rather than hurt anyone.
bill-robinson, Jan 7, 7:16pm
OP, as a tourist yourself, give yourself a good slapping
socram, Jan 7, 9:22pm
Sadly OP, much of that criticism can be levelled at kiwi drivers, who are not exactly world renowned for being on top of their game. Overall, tourist caused fatalities is a minor percentage in NZ.

I doubt it will get better and like it or lump it, tourism is rapidly increasing to become our best overseas income earner - and the only sustainable one.

Post #4 has it nailed. Remember that tourists cannot claim back the 15% GST that puts rather a lot of money into the Government coffers and the local economy and without it, we'd be paying a fair bit more, as that money has to come from somewhere.

My youngest brother lives on the outskirts of a very popular tourist resort in the UK and he is not too keen on the influx of visitors, British or foreign, clogging up the area, as it mucks up the daily cycle ride down to the sea front, but that is the price you pay for being in a tourist area.
gypsypom, Jan 8, 7:42am
buy a humvee or such, that will get their attention, bet you wont get run into, and if you do, what the hell it will only scuff the paint.
andrewcg53, Jan 8, 8:31am
So you just explained they typical NZ driver also, but at least the tourist driver will let you in unlike the NZ driver.
lookoutas, Jan 8, 9:46am
Was sitting here doing emails back when it was still daylight, and heard this all to familiar skid (on the wet road) then boof. more skids.
Hurried out the back door, jumped the back fence and shot through the neighbours place and climbed up the bank to find a Commi that had lost control on a notorious corner and boofed into an oncoming SUV.

Driver of the SUV was nutting off with lots of naughty words when a tourist handed me a phone to tell 111 where the accident was. Finished up hanging up on them as they were bloody useless, and the cops had arrived anyway.
Worst thing was the unaware cars bucking for another pile-up coz the bloody cops pulled up at the site and not one bothered to get around the corner to stop traffic. So guess who did it again?
When a cop finally decided to walk around there and start diverting the traffic, I said "Good, I can go home seeing as you get paid for this"
He made some comment about not being able to get through and I told him it's the first bloody thing ya gotta do when there's an accident here. I've been there when there's been follow-ups due to cops being dickheads.

Anyhow that's not all the story. These young tourists (seemed South American) were almost taken out by the Commi after it hit the SUV, and it was the second accident they had witnessed today!
mals69, Jan 8, 9:57am
Heard a guy on radio say all foreign drivers need to remember
to do is have the white line over their right shoulder
lookoutas, Jan 8, 7:58pm
That means being upside-down on the wrong side?

The above accident spot: second one in the last month, and I've had to do the cops job of traffic control both times.
They got the same comment of it being their paid job both times, so it seems like about time for a visit to the station to remind them of the importance of securing the site before worrying about who to book.
tamarillo, Jan 8, 8:25pm
Tourist drivers are here to stay, as they are all over the world in tourism hot spots.
Basically, get used to it and drive accordingly.
Ps. I would LOVE to see lots more arrows pointing left in the lane. We have afew down here but need lots more. It's the only realistic thing I can see we could do to help.
socram, Jan 8, 8:56pm
Agree. White paint is the cheapest method of basic education on the roads.

Occasionally, we all get a bit of brain fade.

When I drove a left hand drive VW Kombi van in Holland and Belgium, the worst time was when you'd stopped and rejoined the traffic later. Instinct was always to drive on the left so it took a conscious decision to drive on the right.

When I then took the van on the ferry to the UK, arriving late at night, when there was no other traffic on the unlit country roads, was the worst time as indecision fuelled by tiredness didn't help and there was no other traffic to remind you.

Tourists may also come from countries with different road rules, such as America and their turning on red lights, or the French where you give way to traffic already in the roundabout/traffic island.

How many here have lapsed with the old give way to the right rule and had a near miss because you forgot? (Me for 1 and more recently than I would care to admit to. ) How many have travelled overseas to a country where they didn't have the give way to the right rule and nearly come a cropper over there when our rule was valid?

How many have travelled overseas and picked up a rental and have ever had any local rules explained?

It goes way beyond keeping left.

Driving is not easy and I have heard it said that we can make up to 1000 observations, decisions and calculations and judgements per kilometre, so is it any wonder we get accidents?

It doesn't of course cover the morons and those making poor decisions deliberately. Drunks and druggies are the most worrying.
mals69, Jan 8, 8:58pm
Meant you have white-line to the right of your right shoulder at all times

If we were driving a left hook in USA white-line has to be to the left of left shoulder
lookoutas, Jan 9, 4:59am
The Car Shark told Bert to keep the white line by his door didn't he.
Hey - I knew what ya meant.
bill-robinson, Jan 9, 6:11am
trundling along this morning with a friend in his model A and we got overtaken on the locals only yellow passing lane. you worry about tourists dream on
poppy62, Feb 25, 12:35am
Anyone on here use their Horn for anything other than greeting/ farewelling friends. I love blasting my air horns quite frequently, may save many possible accidents. Especially at the right hand lane 70kmh-85kmh hogs of the motorways.etc.,