Enroute Dunedin, NZ
The Great Kiwi Roadtrip continues!!
We make it a habit of reporting things to the highway patrol. This mostly started when Tiffany and Greg’s Mom teamed up on him and forced him to quit stopping for motorists on the side of the highway. If someone looks like they are broken down but not in immediate danger, they reasoned, it is much safer simply to use a cell phone to report it to the highway patrol than to stop in the middle of nowhere and put yourself at the potential mercy of a carjacker.
The reason we bring this up is when we called in a broken down car to the NZ police, they asked us where it was. To which Tiffany replied that it was on the interstate southbound a few kilometers from whatever exit we had just passed.
Tiffany was very proud of herself, incidentally. Using kilometers in conversation.
The police operator chucked and immediately asked if Tiffany was from the States. A bit confused, (she’d used kilometers!) she replied, “Why, yes. Did you guess that from my accent?”
“No, this is New Zealand. We don’t have interstates here.”
That’s true enough. To have an interstate would require that a given country have more than one state and said states be connected by land over which a road, or at least a bridge, could run. It would also in our minds require more than one lane for two directions of traffic on a bridge, but that’s aside from the point.
New Zealand doesn’t have States, they have islands. Consequently, they don’t have an interstate; they have an inter-island ferry, aptly named the Interislander. Both serve the exact same purpose though: to quickly move vehicles from one region to another.
OK, one major difference: The interstate won’t cost you hundreds of dollars every time you use it. The Ferry will. But it could be worse, you could be a cow:
According to our guidebook this is supposed to be one of the prettiest ferry rides on the planet. While it is quite nice, whoever started saying that has not taken a ride on the Tongan ferry from Vava’u to Nuku’Alofa
Greg and Tiffany are traveling around the world on sailing yachts and keep a video blog of their (mis)adventures. If sailing to Tahiti on a 44 ft sailboat, 3-day delays for wine tastings, getting pooped on by seagulls, opening coconuts with dull machetes, sailing past tornadoes and ukulele Christmas carols are for you, then check them out at www.CoastGuardCouple.com!
Loved the video of the ferry – brought back some very nice memories.
Funny how the natives instinctively know when you are not a “local”. Keep ’em coming!