NZ South Island drive or tour bus?

Mst

Hi

Am working in wellington at the moment but will be travelling the south island in march but still cant decide whether to take a tour bus like magic, or just get the intercity pass or to rent a car.
I was looking at scotties car rental, which looks reasonably priced 800 or 900 nz$ for the month.
Anyway magic bus seems kinda expensive when you add in all the add ons. But then it would just be me driving as my friend doesn't drive at all, maybe it would be a drag after a while.
Intercity seems reasonably priced but then its not a tour bus is it, just bus eireann type bus.
Plus whats it like driving on the south island? There seems to be a lot of bad drivers here.

Any thoughts anyone?

majiktripp

I agree with you about there being a lot of bad drivers here! I would recommend hiring a car and just driving yourself. That way your in control and can stop and rest or sleep whenever you like and well tough tits for your friend, he has to like it or learn to drive. Have been driving around the south island since Dec. 28th and have now today arrived in Te Anau for 2 nights, doing Milford Cruise tomorrow and will drive there in the moring. If you do go for a bus tour, try Stray or Magic or theres another Kiwi Camping or something that goes off the beaten track. Unless your 18- early twenties and enjoy booze I'd avoid Kiwi Experience (unless thats your thing).

robinph

Drove around both islands last summer, sorry winter, in a camper and never had any problems with bad drivers because there are so few people on the roads. Could be driving the whole day nearly and never see another vehicle on the road infront or behind you with just the occasional car going the other way. I very rarely drive a four wheel vehicle as I'm on two normally, maybe once or twice a year I may borrow somones car, so I'd certainly not consider myself that experienced but didn't have any real trouble on the NZ roads.

The only issue I did have was nearly crashing in Wellington one day, but that was due to the bleeding daft priority to the right rule that they have there and someone nearly took me out when I was turning left at some junction.

majiktripp

robinph wrote: »

The only issue I did have was nearly crashing in Wellington one day, but that was due to the bleeding daft priority to the right rule that they have there and someone nearly took me out when I was turning left at some junction.

I think that may be "Compulsory Courtesy" your refering too. A very stupid rule that you have to give way if your turning the same direction as someone else etc...hard to explain in type..but a rediculous rule indeed.

pclancy

You get used to the give way when turning left rule after a while but yeah I had a few new misses early on. Crazy idea really. I think it dates back to giving way to Trams or something ancient.

The South Island is a pleasure to drive around, you can go for ages without meeting another vehicle in some places. Roads are well maintained and in general seem safe, Kiwis do seem to love overtaking in stupid places though and can get impatient when behind someone not doing 120kph!

I'd say rent a car if you can, the freedom for being able to stop wherever you see a nice waterfall or gorge worth exploring or a nice beech to surf is well worth it. If you plan your journeys around 200-300K you'll be okay once you take frequent breaks. Every small town has hostels and cafes etc if you need to stopover. Remember a lot of the West coast is very windy slow roads so allow for longer to get wher you're going. On the other extreme some of the roads in Canterbury are straight for 50ks and are boring as hell

The buses are good for backpackers but you do have to follow their route and you've no idea who'll you end up sitting with

watna

I say rent a car too. I went around the south island for a week over Christmas and the buses looked horrible. All these sheep being herded in to tourist attractions in a big group. I said a couple of times how I knew I wouldn't have liked that. Having a car give you so much more freedom, you can go where you want and for how long you want.

Drivers in NZ don't seem any worse to me than in Ireland and as Robin said there is not many people on the road in the South Island. My parents were out when we went to the South Island and my dad did some of thr driving, not a bother on him - and he was only in the country for 2 weeks!. Just make sure you have someone to share the driving with, places are quite far apart in the South Island and fatigue is a big killer here - there are a lot of ads on tv about it.

And yes, I got caught out with the person turning right has right of way rule too. I'm only getting used to it now because I'm making myself drive more. I got really bad about letting my bf drive because he is from Wellington.

robinph

Just remembered that I didn encounter the weird right priority again on the South Island actually. I was the one turning right, and I was in a slow campervan about to turn up some windy mountain road. The only other vehicle that I'd encountered that morning appeared at the same junction from the other direction but refused to turn left until I went first. I was sat there for for ages trying to figure out why he didn't move to turn up the road before me, he was in some new 4x4 suv thing that didn't look like he'd appreciate being stuck behind me on that road, but he still didn't move until I went.

I did hear a rumor from another friend that the cops have been known to park campers on the side of the roads with speed camera in though so he might have thought I could be the police.

Tim Robbins

Mst wrote: »

Hi

Am working in wellington at the moment but will be travelling the south island in march but still cant decide whether to take a tour bus like magic, or just get the intercity pass or to rent a car.
I was looking at scotties car rental, which looks reasonably priced 800 or 900 nz$ for the month.
Anyway magic bus seems kinda expensive when you add in all the add ons. But then it would just be me driving as my friend doesn't drive at all, maybe it would be a drag after a while.
Intercity seems reasonably priced but then its not a tour bus is it, just bus eireann type bus.
Plus whats it like driving on the south island? There seems to be a lot of bad drivers here.

Any thoughts anyone?

I did the Magic Bus when I was 30 (33 now). It felt a bit like being on a school tour.

I would say if you get on well with your mate, and you are both out going then you'll meet people and won't be told when to get back on the bus after a toilet break.

I did the North Island with my mate in his car and we had a great laugh and met loads of NZ people. But I did the South Island (part of it) on my own. Again great time, but met more people from Germany, Holland, UK and Ireland on the magic bus and few from NZ.

It all comes down to what you prefer. The magic bus takes away a bit of hassels from organising this and that if you don't have much time, but otherwise I'd skip it.

Mst

Thanks for all the advice lads. Decided to rent a car then, they threw in one of those gps things so I should be alright.
Thats a funny old rule, it`ll take a bit of getting used to. Most of the rest of the rules are the same as Ireland tho I presume? I suppose I should have a look at their road rules or something.

pclancy

Its really simple just get into the habit of if you are turning left to check all around you for traffic that might be turning right. You'll get used to it just always watch out for other peoples mistakes. The only other real differences I can think of are there are one lane bridges where you might have to give way to other traffic and when you park on the road you must park facing direction of traffic.

Give this a read too....http://www.landtransport.govt.nz/overseasdrivers/driving-in-nz.html

Don't speed much either there are traffic cops EVERYWHERE. They do police the roads extremly well compared to back home. I've been down the back end of beyond and still seen checkpoints or speedtraps and their squadcars can clock you from any direction even if they're driving towards you.

Mst

Thanks thats a handy website. I don't think I`ll be speeding anyway, I`ll be too busy trying to work out where I'm going.

robinph

You'll not have any trouble getting around at all. It's virtually impossible to get lost and about the only time when I did take a wrong turn was becasue of the GPS and the free maps I'd loaded onto it had some farm track marked down as a road so it tried to direct us that way instead, if I'd just trusted the road signs and a bit of intuition I'd have gone the correct way to start off with. There are so few roads about the South Island though that you won't go far wrong and even in the towns, just do a couple of laps and you'll have seen every street already and so be able to find where you looking for.

brendansmith

robinph wrote: »

The only issue I did have was nearly crashing in Wellington one day, but that was due to the bleeding daft priority to the right rule that they have there and someone nearly took me out when I was turning left at some junction.

Jesus! Thanks for the heads up! I knew nothing about this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VyOTdH6A0w

better keep an eye out for that