The Country of Smiles

From Movies

Orchids and Luxury

From Movies

Oz: Act Two

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En Zed

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Aotearoa

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The Tremendous Trio

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Oz

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Video Fixation

Watching other people's home videos is everyone's favorite pastime, isn't it? Well, if you haven't had your fix of home videos from your winter holiday visit with your folks or your early summer family reunion, take a look at mine. Over the next few days, I'll be posting photo videos from each leg of my round-the-world journey. They're homemade on Picasa and it's the first time I've worked with the program, so please bear with me.

And if after watching these, you still haven't had enough, I'm sure my mom's got some old videos she'd love to show you of me drooling as a baby.

She's Back!

After an excessively long intermission of finishing up travel, visiting friends and family, moving to England and getting settled, I'm back to blogging. With many more tales to tell from my trip around the world, as well as new stories of living in England, I've got plenty to say. So stay tuned!

Roads Less Travelled

Due to the fact that I am living in England as a British citizen, I am not permitted to drive on my U.S. driver’s license, nor my international driver’s permit. Instead, I must earn my British driving license by completing the long, arduous process of obtaining a provisional license, driving under restrictions in the company of a licensed driver, studying the British highway code, passing a theory test and finally, passing a rigorous and precise practical driving test.

As I face this annoying obstacle, I find myself reminiscing about my first experience driving on the left side of the road. It happened on New Zealand’s south island, on an inland road (in fact, I think it’s actually called Inland Road), somewhere between Lewis Pass and Kaikoura. Danielle, Malila, and I had taken Ben’s campervan for a two-day mission from Christchurch to Greymouth, up to Kaikoura, and back down to Christchurch. It was two days of driving, from east coast to west coast and back in less than 48 hours.

Danielle had been doing all of the driving on the trip thus far, as she was already accustomed to driving on the left side.  But when we found ourselves in the middle of nowhere and the road straight as far as our eyes could see, Danielle and I decided this would be a good time for me to give it a whirl. I hopped into the driver’s seat, surveyed my surroundings, and was immediately lost. I was sitting on the right side of the car instead of the left, the stick shift was to my left instead of my right, and the indicator lever was on my right instead of my left. Ack!

I started up the van, voiced a reminder to myself to stay on the left side, and merged onto the road. Despite crawling at a snail’s pace, I seemed to start off fairly well. Though, I repeatedly attempted to shift gears with the door handle. My brain was having to bend so far away from habit that I was getting a headache.

I steadily began to feel more comfortable and picked up some speed until, much to our dismay, the landscape turned from flat fields to rolling hills. There was no straight stretch of road in sight. I’m sure it would have been beautiful scenery if I had had the nerve to look away from the road for one second.

As was bound to happen, a car approached us from the opposite lane. We closed the distance to the upcoming curve and I silently repeated, “stay to the left, stay to the left, Stay To The Left, STAY TO THE LEFT!!!! AAAAAYYYEEEE!!” Phew. We made it.

But suddenly, Danielle squealed in fear. I thought we’d made it past the other car in one piece! What was she on about? Apparently, I had veered the van so far to the left to avoid the other car that the passenger side, and thus, Danielle, were precariously close to falling off a steep bank. Oops!

After we’d recovered, I checked the gas guage and noticed it was getting a bit low. No problem, we would stop at the next town to get some fuel. Only there was no next town. At least, not one with a gas station. Rural “towns” in New Zealand seem to consist of only two or three buildings, which are often just houses and maybe a small cafe. We had to make whatever remaining gas we had last all the way to Kaikoura. So, here I was, driving on the left side for the first time on a curvy, hilly road through the middle of nowhere in a large campervan, and having to coast in neutral as much as possible to stretch the little fuel we had left. Awesome.

Despite indisputably breaking numerous New Zealand traffic laws after that day on Inland Road, I gained plenty of practice driving on the left side and became quite accustomed to the country’s roads and driving etiquette.

As New Zealand is still quite rural, most of the roads are barely wide enough to be considered two lanes. They are narrow, windy, hilly, and often unpaved. The speed limit on open highways usually ranges between 80-100 km/hr, though drivers seem to go whatever speed they please. If you are planning to turn left onto another road or into a parking lot, and a car facing you from the opposite direction is also planning to turn onto that same road or lot, you must yield to the opposite car. If someone is passing you, you pull to the left side of the lane and slow down a bit to let them pass safely. The passer usually expresses her/his thanks with a double honk of the horn, and all is well.

The road signage in New Zealand is brilliant. It’s as if the roads know exactly where you want to go and tell you the easiest and quickest way to get there. You could undoubtedly get by without a map if you needed to. Just take the main road out of town and follow the signs to your destination, whether it be another town, a tourist attraction, or even a church or marae. And the suggested speed signs at every curve in the road are impossible to miss, or even ignore, due to their ostentatious size.

New Zealand takes it’s road safety seriously. It is illegal throughout the country to use a mobile phone while driving. And the only billboards you will see outside of the cities feature road safety messages such as “Slow Down. It’s That Simple,” or “nvr txt n drive”.

Here in northern Cornwall, the roads are of similar shape and terrain. Some are so narrow that if you meet another car, one of you must reverse to a gate opening or a widening of the hedgerow in order to pass. Of course, there is a load of unwritten, yet very traditional etiquette involved in determining which of you must reverse.

Thankfully for me, speed regulations and car spedometers are set in miles-per-hour, rather than kilometers-per-hour as one might assume. Beyond that fact, however, I am unaware of the traffic laws specific to Britain, as I’ve been traveling only as a passenger thus far. A week or so ago, while catching a ride to a nearby town, I took note of a sign that said, “Adverse Camber.” HUH??

Better start studying.