Just what are the regs re headlights

Two points to make here: no matter how bright the oncoming lights are, if you keep looking at them you will have trouble. You should be looking at the white line - fog line - on the left of the road by the shoulder, and if lights really trouble you you may well have the beginnings - or worse - of cataracts in your eyes. I had both lenses replaced in my eyes, and the difference was dramatic. I can look at an oncoming vehicle and read his number plate between his headlamps, and I'm 80 years old. My eyesight is like a 10-year-old's. Get an eyesight check if in doubt.

Only car I currently drive with extra lights is a 2008 Toyota Aurion at work. It has two small "driving lights" / "fog lights" low down on the front bumper.

There is no connection with the dip/high beam switch - They have their own separate column switch to turn them on, but they only work if your have your side lights or headlights turned on via the main lighting switch.

I don't think they are very bright, and doubt they would dazzle anybody; all they do is light up the side of the road a bit closer to you than what the headlights will cover. So they are good in town or on very windy roads but are not for lighting up the road far in front of you.

A few years ago when I was driving my old 1971 Triumph everywhere as a daily driver, I lived in Auckland and used to drive in the Waikato fog quite a lot. So I fitted two big round period Hella 5.75" round fog lamps, low down under the bumper. These had a perfectly parabolic reflector and a clear flat glass front, and they made an EXTREMELY bright, narrow pencil beam that lit up the road a 'Hella' long way ahead! So as well as being good functional fog lights, they were also better than the (already good) main high beam lights under some circumstances.

I was able to connect them straight into existing wiring that was already provided for optional fog lights. The main lighting switch is a big rotating dial on the side of the steering column, the positions are Park - Off - Side - Head - Fog so this made it easy to use my "fog" lamps as an alternative high beam just by switching between the fog lights and the dipped main lights using the main light switch. (Obviously I never shone these in the presence of any other motorist, no matter how far away they were or which way they were heading.)

In the day time this meant I had 6 large round lights on the front of the car (the factory double headlights plus my 2 fog lights) but I passed several warrants and a lot of police cars without ever being called out on it.

My BMW 635 CSI had that 4 headlights & 2 og lights I changed to 100 watt driving lights , VTNZ refused WOF only allowed them to be on without main lights .so had to put in a separate relay .

Getting people around chch rural to actually turn their lights on, with all these overcast days in the evenings is a mission, what is it with them, do they think
They are saving fuel/saving lights wearing out?