Road policing on New Zealand South Island?
Discussion
Anyone know how heavily the roads on the South Island are policed, any tips? Anything to avoid (other then getting caught)? What are the penalties for off-worlders? I would have thought that away from the towns there are no patrols/traps, but maybe not?
Doing a loop from Christchurch to Queenstown, Wanaka, Westport and back to Christchurch. Would be nice to avoid any imperial entanglements.
Doing a loop from Christchurch to Queenstown, Wanaka, Westport and back to Christchurch. Would be nice to avoid any imperial entanglements.
On holiday weekends and over the xmas /summer break they crack down a heap everywhere.
We have BIG press about tourist drivers killing people at the moment ( driving on the wrong side of the road etc) , there have been several incidents of locals taking keys off tourists.. No one is blaming them either.
Back roads you can get away with 120-130 they are not overly policed.
Main routes (there is often only the 1 real road between 2 places) will be patrolled. All the patrol cars have radar and can tell your speed whichever way you are going.
TBH if you are on holiday take your time (cruise at 110), have fun on the twisty bits, there are plenty of them.
Oh and they for some reason dont like you cutting bends even when its safe to do so. I still do.
We have BIG press about tourist drivers killing people at the moment ( driving on the wrong side of the road etc) , there have been several incidents of locals taking keys off tourists.. No one is blaming them either.
Back roads you can get away with 120-130 they are not overly policed.
Main routes (there is often only the 1 real road between 2 places) will be patrolled. All the patrol cars have radar and can tell your speed whichever way you are going.
TBH if you are on holiday take your time (cruise at 110), have fun on the twisty bits, there are plenty of them.
Oh and they for some reason dont like you cutting bends even when its safe to do so. I still do.
RobDickinson said:
On holiday weekends and over the xmas /summer break they crack down a heap everywhere.
We have BIG press about tourist drivers killing people at the moment ( driving on the wrong side of the road etc) , there have been several incidents of locals taking keys off tourists.. No one is blaming them either.
Back roads you can get away with 120-130 they are not overly policed.
mph, right?We have BIG press about tourist drivers killing people at the moment ( driving on the wrong side of the road etc) , there have been several incidents of locals taking keys off tourists.. No one is blaming them either.
Back roads you can get away with 120-130 they are not overly policed.
RobDickinson said:
Main routes (there is often only the 1 real road between 2 places) will be patrolled. All the patrol cars have radar and can tell your speed whichever way you are going.
TBH if you are on holiday take your time (cruise at 110), have fun on the twisty bits, there are plenty of them.
Oh and they for some reason dont like you cutting bends even when its safe to do so. I still do.
Hmmm - OK - I'm likely to be in trouble then.TBH if you are on holiday take your time (cruise at 110), have fun on the twisty bits, there are plenty of them.
Oh and they for some reason dont like you cutting bends even when its safe to do so. I still do.
What are the penalties? How bad can it get?
kph!
50kph over = $650 fine, lower fines for lower speeds.
40kph over you can get a suspension but not sure if this applies to tourists
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/65503624/tou...
50kph over = $650 fine, lower fines for lower speeds.
40kph over you can get a suspension but not sure if this applies to tourists
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/65503624/tou...
We went on a 3 week jaunt there in the off season. 4 hours on a road with not one car in sight, came into a small town (oh .. say 15 houses .. nearly a city in NZ!) and got done by a car sitting 20 yards inside the speed limit. About 12 kph over and fined. You take it to a local bank for payment. Not a smile from the officer or even a relatively warm greeting. Did not object to the fine (too much) but the lack of basic friendliness jarred with all our other experience travelling the wonderful country.
Spoke to locals and they confirmed the police do have a thing for tourists and will not give an inch where they are concerned. A local would usually get a chat at that speed but visitors get the fine.
Spoke to locals and they confirmed the police do have a thing for tourists and will not give an inch where they are concerned. A local would usually get a chat at that speed but visitors get the fine.
As said the police stick mainly to towns and main roads (which might not look like main roads to you... if its the primary route between places its probably a main road), and in the more remote areas (ie west coast) there aren't that many of them to cover a lot of ground.
They can be stupidly single-minded about speed though, all too often these days its rigid adherence to the letter of the law and who cares about its intent.
Plenty of quiet back roads to have more fun on. Main roads I just cruise on the straight bits and have a bit of fun in the twisties.
They can be stupidly single-minded about speed though, all too often these days its rigid adherence to the letter of the law and who cares about its intent.
Plenty of quiet back roads to have more fun on. Main roads I just cruise on the straight bits and have a bit of fun in the twisties.
Edited by GravelBen on Thursday 19th March 09:26
You will come across highway patrol cars on those roads, but once you've been past it, there is unlikely to be another one for a while...
But i'd stick to 65mph for the most part and enjoy the rediculous scenery. Not sure what the fines/ penaltys are, but I'd say anything over 150kmh would get your licence removed?
And yes, tourist drivers have been in the news a lot lately, so there is added "vigilance", rightly or wrongly.
But i'd stick to 65mph for the most part and enjoy the rediculous scenery. Not sure what the fines/ penaltys are, but I'd say anything over 150kmh would get your licence removed?
And yes, tourist drivers have been in the news a lot lately, so there is added "vigilance", rightly or wrongly.
Sounds like you're determined to go speeding regardless of any advice 
Perhaps we may see you on the news here too.
When I first moved here I thought I'd lose my license due to the lower speed limits but the roads here really dont lend themselves to speed due to the poor state of most of them.
Perhaps we may see you on the news here too.
When I first moved here I thought I'd lose my license due to the lower speed limits but the roads here really dont lend themselves to speed due to the poor state of most of them.
RobDickinson said:
All the patrol cars have radar and can tell your speed whichever way you are going.
This is the thing to watch out for. I was travelling with friends (who were living there at the time so we weren't in a hire car and standing out as tourists) and he got caught doing, I think, 90kph in an 80kph limit by a police car travelling in the opposite direction.Can't remember exactly what the fine was but it was something like NZ$60-100.
Plenty of cynical traffic policing in New Zealand. I lived in the North Island for 3 years and got pinched twice before I realised how anal they are about speeding.
Wide open spaces, little or no traffic, great roads and there's always a cop lurking somewhere with a camera. Expect to find them hiding at the bottom of steep hills, in overtaking lanes, around blind bends, etc, etc, even in the middle of nowhere.
The police like to repeat the mantra of speed kills ad nauseum while largely ignoring all the other causes of (the majority of) accidents, such as inattentive or aggressive driving, stupid overtaking, unsafe cars, boy racers everywhere, dozy/drugged truckers, etc, etc.
Even the motorways are limited to the same low 100kph limit as the rest of the road network. Undertaking on motorways is legal too. Also beware of the right turning traffic priority rule! Your rental car insurance might not cover gravel roads either, and there are plenty of them in the rural areas (i.e: most of NZ!).
Your best bet is to seek out the twisty bits and enjoy them at legal speeds and deny the cops their ticket targets...
Wide open spaces, little or no traffic, great roads and there's always a cop lurking somewhere with a camera. Expect to find them hiding at the bottom of steep hills, in overtaking lanes, around blind bends, etc, etc, even in the middle of nowhere.
The police like to repeat the mantra of speed kills ad nauseum while largely ignoring all the other causes of (the majority of) accidents, such as inattentive or aggressive driving, stupid overtaking, unsafe cars, boy racers everywhere, dozy/drugged truckers, etc, etc.
Even the motorways are limited to the same low 100kph limit as the rest of the road network. Undertaking on motorways is legal too. Also beware of the right turning traffic priority rule! Your rental car insurance might not cover gravel roads either, and there are plenty of them in the rural areas (i.e: most of NZ!).
Your best bet is to seek out the twisty bits and enjoy them at legal speeds and deny the cops their ticket targets...
Drove a 125bhp transit Kiwi campervan round NZ in 2010 for a month. Got caught speeding twice going into and out of Greymouth, $60 NZ fine both times, paid by Kiwi campers and then charged back to my credit card!!
Our insurance didn't cover gravel roads which covers most of Rural NZ, and as we were following Rally NZ in the WRC we just ignored this and drove on them anyhow.
The rural gravel roads are fantastic, cambered corners, fast straight sections, even in a campervan they where a joy to drive on.
Don't bother with Invercargill in the South Island, unless your into Burt Monroe and the fastest indian, there is feck all in that town worth seeing!!
Our insurance didn't cover gravel roads which covers most of Rural NZ, and as we were following Rally NZ in the WRC we just ignored this and drove on them anyhow.
The rural gravel roads are fantastic, cambered corners, fast straight sections, even in a campervan they where a joy to drive on.
Don't bother with Invercargill in the South Island, unless your into Burt Monroe and the fastest indian, there is feck all in that town worth seeing!!
Francy555 said:
Drove a 125bhp transit Kiwi campervan round NZ in 2010 for a month. Got caught speeding twice going into and out of Greymouth, $60 NZ fine both times, paid by Kiwi campers and then charged back to my credit card!!
Our insurance didn't cover gravel roads which covers most of Rural NZ, and as we were following Rally NZ in the WRC we just ignored this and drove on them anyhow.
The rural gravel roads are fantastic, cambered corners, fast straight sections, even in a campervan they where a joy to drive on.
Don't bother with Invercargill in the South Island, unless your into Burt Monroe and the fastest indian, there is feck all in that town worth seeing!!
However, the shop and bikes in it are quite cool, I even bought a fastest Indian t-shirt, but yes, not a lot else going on in Invercargill, we stopped there as we continued West towards Milford Sound.Our insurance didn't cover gravel roads which covers most of Rural NZ, and as we were following Rally NZ in the WRC we just ignored this and drove on them anyhow.
The rural gravel roads are fantastic, cambered corners, fast straight sections, even in a campervan they where a joy to drive on.
Don't bother with Invercargill in the South Island, unless your into Burt Monroe and the fastest indian, there is feck all in that town worth seeing!!
I'm talking 10 years ago but when we drove around the South Island it was rare to see that many cars outside of the main towns or tourist points. We had some rubbish Suzuki or Toyota 1.1 car which struggled to get up hills so speed was never going to be an issue.
Outside of that we hardly saw any police cars at all.
Outside of that we hardly saw any police cars at all.
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