Great Driving Roads Of The South

[GTR-N1]

I haven't been to NZ for nearly 20 years.

How are the lovely driving roads in the South I. these days?

I'll always recall the windy windy road above Christchurch/Canterbury Plains/Lyttleton Hbr

+ Road from Queenstown to Te Anau

+ Road through Hanmer Springs/Lewis Pass

What do you consider to be the great driving roads?

[Spurdo]

i've always enjoyed nailing it through the wangamoa's, windy road through the hills heading east out of nelson towards blenheim. dodgy during the winter though as parts of the road dont see the sun so ice spots dont melt.. many cars have been off the side there.

takaka hill, north of motueka is pretty wicked too, as long as theres no traffic its hairpin after hairpin. again, claimed more than it's share of vehicles over the years. i reckon that would be a wicked venue for a tarmac rally. couldn't be closed off though as it's the only road in and out of the golden bay region.

yea the winding road above the port hills in chch is pretty epic. summit rd. i think its a popular burnout/drift spot for the boyracers lol as hardly any traffic and no one around up there.

and yea the road between christchurch and nelsons pretty good when theres minimal traffic. i've done that one countless times i can visualize virtually the entire 400km. my record was 3hrs 30mins in my old a32 cefiro, i worked out after dark on a weeknight theres almost no traffic whatsoever

[Shell]

How are the lovely driving roads in the South I. these days?

They're still lovely Terry..... we took 2 1/2 weeks to do the Island so did a really large percentage of them. Unfortunately in a hire car, not the Skyline

Summit Rd/Lyttleton was our first taste as we flew into Chch and went exploring... the sheep up there have the best views!

Sooo many awesome roads that I wouldnt even remember what's what... but loved this one (Te Anau to Q'town):

[GTR-N1]

Sigh, Michelle...

What a view! I remember it well!

Tell me, back in '74 and even to some extent in '91, there was still a lack of "Advisory Speed Signs with Wriggly Lines" telling you as you came up to a crest or blind corner that your speed should be below yaddayadda.

Has NZ improved that?

Just hated coming over the top of a hill only to find that the road dipped away suddenly to the right/left.

98RON easily available (in case one got one's hands on a Liberty GT etc)?

[Shell]

It's an awesome view hey We had sunny days like that most of the trip, made taking good pics very easy

I was never the one filling up the car so I honestly never looked, but there seems to be plenty of places with Ultimate so I'm sure the others would too http://www.bp.com/liveassets/bp_internet/bp_ultimate/bp_ultimate_new_zealand/STAGING/local_assets/downloads_pdfs/d/BPUltimateDieselLocationsnOV10.pdf

Warning signs? Like boobs ahead??

[Spurdo]

yeah i think they must have improved the signs on blind corners since you were here. i've never had trouble anticipating blind corners they are usually marked with an indication on what to expect.

98ron is available virtually everywhere except really out of the way places like in the Marlborough sounds etc. although i used to live in nelson and they didnt have it there.. i even emailed BP head office at one point to ask them why we didnt have it, they said it's delivered into lyttelton and distrubuted from there and nelson is too far out of the way. BS if you ask me, they deliver it up to blenheim and nelson is only an hour west of there, with twice the population. hell they even take it over to grey mouth. i think it may have had something to do with the fact that the local ford dealer owns all the bp stations in the region and maybe for some reason they were against it.

[GTR-N1]

Yes, if they deliver 98 to Blenheim and Greymouth, there's no excuse for Nelson missing out.

So it's good they've improved communication with Advisory Signage then.

I thought there was something missing on that sign above!

It's the ant nest at the top of each hill hehe...

Is there still that good twisty stretch coming down to Arrowtown?

[Shell]

Yes! I'm pretty sure I remember the bit you're talking about except it sounds like we were going the opposite way as it was after Arrowtown (we came from Queenstown, then Arrowtown, then on to Wanaka)

lol @ ants nests I should have drawn them on hehe

[GTR-N1]

...and what's a nice exhaust sound like in the Homer?

...or even through the canyons along the Hollyford?

[dirtyRS4]

Yes! I'm pretty sure I remember the bit you're talking about except it sounds like we were going the opposite way as it was after Arrowtown (we came from Queenstown, then Arrowtown, then on to Wanaka)

it goes arrowtown to queenstown then to wanaka iirc. lol.

me and the mrs found the road from queenstown to wanaka treacherous due to being in nz in december. therefore the mountain snow caps were melting and playing havoc on the roads into and out of that area with tour bus services. we headed on to frans josef to check out glaciers from my uncles plane which was awesome. I found the roads well signed and easier in the south island than the built up north. i was begging to be in the stagea by the end of the trip.

it sounds like you really didnt do the whole sth island shell? you really missed out if you didnt do the drive from Lake tekapo to Mnt. Cook.

[GTR-N1]

Very nice pic too! ^ ^ ^

Yes, it's a real scenic road with sweepers from Twizel to Mt Cook, with the Tasman Glacier to the right (& another glacier or two merging into it).

Sigh... all my pics are on slides > just learning atm to convert them to digital.

[Shell]

it sounds like you really didnt do the whole sth island shell? you really missed out if you didnt do the drive from Lake tekapo to Mnt. Cook.

yeah we did as much as we could, unfortunately some bits had to miss out Gave it a good go though!

We did Lake Tekapo, Lake Pukaki and then stayed in Twizel for the night.

[dirtyRS4]

yeah we did as much as we could, unfortunately some bits had to miss out Gave it a good go though!

We did Lake Tekapo, Lake Pukaki and then stayed in Twizel for the night.

we did christchurch, dunedin, wellington, kaikoura, omaru, lake tekapo, queenstown, frans josef, nelson, picton, te anau, greymouth and then took our 4WD across on the interislander to the north island as far up as hastings and napier. not in that order of course.

going back in 6 months to visit friends and do snowboarding and see lake tahpo and rotorua (rotavegas). wanna see the far north such as whangerie and the the Bay of Plenty. volcanic pools would be good aswell and my mrs wont skydive so she wants me to hot air balloon across the canterbury plains with her. lol. btw queenstown is the best for adventure sports, did you do any? nz is just a magical place. i will find more photos. at work atm.

[dirtyRS4]

pic of lake tekapo. just moved so rummaging thru photos atm Terry. moar on the weekend.

queenstown

picton

Edited January 7, 2011 by dirtyRS4

[dirtyRS4]

moar of picton nz. we liked this place and is good for diving for shellfish like paua, mussels, scallops and crayfish. would really like a boat when i retire.

[GTR-N1]

Thanks Jason/Shellie, I look forward to more.

Swap ya!

I've restarted my Japan pics from 1976.

[Shell]

we did christchurch, dunedin, wellington, kaikoura, omaru, lake tekapo, queenstown, frans josef, nelson, picton, te anau, greymouth and then took our 4WD across on the interislander to the north island as far up as hastings and napier. not in that order of course.

going back in 6 months to visit friends and do snowboarding and see lake tahpo and rotorua (rotavegas). wanna see the far north such as whangerie and the the Bay of Plenty. volcanic pools would be good aswell and my mrs wont skydive so she wants me to hot air balloon across the canterbury plains with her. lol. btw queenstown is the best for adventure sports, did you do any? nz is just a magical place. i will find more photos. at work atm.

That pic is amazing!!

As for adventure sports.... no I would have done some jetboating at the most. We went up the Skyline gondola and watched for people bungy jumping while we were up there but no one was game haha.

We did Christchurch, Geraldine (where we bought a dog), Lake Tekapo, Lake Pukaki, Twizel, Oamaru, Dunedin, Balclutha, The Catlins, Invercargill, Te Anau, Milford Sound, Queenstown, Wanaka, Haast, Fox Glacier, Franz Josef Glacier, Greymouth, Nelson, Picton, Blenheim, Kaikora, Hanmer Springs, Arthurs Pass, Geraldine (to visit dog again), and 2 more nights in Christchurch.

*bolded where we actually stayed

This is my very favourite piccy.... in fact it's probably my favourite pic I've taken evah!!

[GTR-N1]

^ ^ ^ yep, you should be proud of that one.

Did you use a polarising filter to grab those underwater rocks so clearly?

Pic is expertly balanced (with whiteness at bottom right and top left) > worth being a postcard > you might as well run off a few, just for that reason.

[Shell]

What are these filters you speak of Terry? Nah just taken with a point n shoot.

I crouched down to get the rocks cos I thought it would look better but I didn't realise it would balance out so well!

[GTR-N1]

What are these filters you speak of Terry? Nah just taken with a point n shoot.

I crouched down to get the rocks cos I thought it would look better but I didn't realise it would balance out so well!

You shouldn't self-deprecate hehe...

Yes, I know it's a 'male' thing to pat ourselves on the back.

A Polarising filter screws onto the main lens of the camera, and it has a revolving collar.

Then you can turn the collar until all the reflections in the viewfinder of a TTL SLR go away > shoot!

If you have a DSLR, it'd be most useful on snow/water eg. whalewatching.