A word of warning for both motorists and cyclists touring NZ.
February and March are the peak tourist season with most companies entire rental car and campervan fleets leased out to visitors that are both unfamiliar with our winding roads and NZ road rules.
One road rule in particular can catch travellers unaware. New Zealand allows bicycles to travel two three or more abreast (side by side). Many overseas nations only allow cyclists to travel on roads in a single file. The implication here is that many overseas drivers find themself suddenly encountering a very slow moving obstacle that blocks half the traffic lane. The visitor may also have no experience in dealing with this type of encounter if they are from one of those countries where this practice is unlawful.
Due to the nature of our narrow roads and the hilly winding topography such an obstacle can arise without warning and unexpectedly.
I witnessed a good example of this problem on a recent foray over the Crown Range from Wanaka to Queenstown. (See Queenstown to Wanaka Map for details on Crown Range Rd)
I was among a que of about four cars tailing a slow Camper van as it crawled its way up the narrow snaking road. The van was travelling at speeds of sixty to eighty kilometres per hour and was preoccupied by the traffic behind. Campervans generally try and find a place to move onto the road shoulder to allow faster vehicles to pass. In this case the camper clearly felt pressured by the impatent que and was pushing his vehicle so as not to be a nuisance.
Suddenly he turned a bend only to find a pair of cyclists two abreast. As this was in the uphill part of the Crown Pass, the cyclists were travelling at little more than walking pace. Effectively he was faced with a stationary obstruction with no warning and little time to stop.
The campervan braked heavily and swerved onto the outer oncoming lane where he came to a complete stop. Items inside the van could be clearly seen flying forward and the van was lucky that no other traffic was in the other oncoming lane.
Could have the campervan driver handled the situation any differently? From my observation of the event, the only other alternative would involved hitting the outer cyclist. My other question is why are there so many cyclists in the middle of nowhere biking for many many kilometres uphill with all their possessions in a heavy bike pack?
That is the crux of the ‘unexpected’ part of this problem. As a local I find it unusual and unexplainable as to why one would be touring New Zealand by this method of transport. If you extrapolate this to the thinking and expectations of a visitor from Sydney or London for example, then you can see that this can be a potentially nasty surprise. But that said, cycling is a popular method of touring NZ. Many tourism company even bus people up popular mountain passes where they then bike downhill to meet the bus and continue on their tour.
From a cyclist point of view, I would not recommend travelling side by side as you put yourself at risk and potentially may be the cause of a head on accident.
Tags: Bike tours, Biking, NZ Cycling
Good point. Im leaving to do the unusual and unexplainable bike tour of your country next week with my partner. At the tender age of 52/50 I hope we are up to those hills.