The true joy of a Kiwi roadie
I’ve never liked driving. The moment I put up those L-plates as a 16-year-old, I felt the full weight of responsibility that came with getting behind the wheel of a potentially deadly machine. No matter how hard I pored over the road code, or how many lessons I took with instructors, I never managed to get over my fear of making a fatal mistake.
I know I’m not alone. A Massey University study, published in 2018, found two-thirds of Kiwi drivers experience mild to severe anxiety on the road.
My way of dealing with it, until quite recently, was avoidance. I had a licence, but I didn’t own a car. I enjoyed an inner-city lifestyle in Wellington where I could walk nearly anywhere, catch the bus, or use a rideshare app if I needed to.
Travelling was a bit trickier. Road trips were out, unless I could find a friend who was willing to chauffeur me. But I didn’t feel as though I was missing out on much. I figured the only destinations worth visiting were ones with an international airport.
Then the pandemic happened and, well, you know how it goes. With borders closed, our travels were suddenly limited to our own backyard. Except it turns out our backyard is rather vast, and to explore every corner of it, you really do need a car.
So, over Christmas I dusted off my licence and embarked on my first real road trip in the South Island, driving from Dunedin to Naseby through Middlemarch, and making the return journey via the road known as the Pigroot.
My mum took me on a test drive the day before I set off (fair enough, considering I was borrowing her car for the trip). It was just like I was 16 again, as she nervously held the grab handle, making ‘‘wee suggestions’’, while I whiteknuckled the steering wheel, hissing through gritted teeth every time another car had the audacity to come near me.
The next thing I knew I was on the highway, finally taking part in the great Kiwi tradition from the driver’s seat. For a start, I was incredibly jittery, pulling over to let every car behind me pass. But after the first half an hour passed incident-free, I relaxed into the drive, singing along to my music and soaking up the scenery.
I loved having the freedom to stop whenever and wherever I wanted along the way. I felt like, for the first time, I was really discovering New Zealand.
I was feeling so confident by the time I got back to Wellington that I rented a car and took on one of the biggest, baddest roads of all – the notoriously steep, winding Remutaka Hill Rd, which links Wellington with the Wairarapa. I guess you could call it my personal Everest. Once I’d conquered it, I felt on top of the world.
I’m still in the early stages of my relationship with road trips, but someone who is far more experienced is my colleague Brook Sabin, who just completed a 100-day jaunt around New Zealand.
Join him on pages 34-35 as he shares his top tips for tackling the Southern Scenic Route between Queenstown and Dunedin, which he describes as the one road trip to rule them all.