Relocation cars, law and ethics: Legally if you see an animal in the middle of the road (lets say a mum and her ducklings), you are supposed to carry on driving straight through or over them without swerving to miss them if you can’t safely stop on the side of the road (no animal rights here). What if it’s a cow?? What does the insurance say??? This could be a great thing to find out…….any ideas??
Category: Sights & Attractions
Parking Overnight in a Campervan
I just received a question regarding parking overnight on the side of the road in a campervan. I did my research and have found the answers I was looking for:
- Locals don’t like people camping on the streets in their towns (And you really don’t want to be making trouble with the locals!).
- Many towns have local by laws prohibiting overnight camping, and you’ll be woken at 4-5am and told to move on.
- If there are no signs indicating you are allowed to park on the side of the road, you should not assume that it is acceptable to stop and park.
- Most towns have motor parks, and camping grounds where you can park, and there are many opportunities for “Freedom Camping” outside of towns and built up areas.
- Alongside rivers and lakes (except within a town boundary) or in designated camping areas within National Parks, you are welcome to camp to your heart’s content.
Many rather to park at a side of the road because parking lots are filled with obstacles and hazards, but often the biggest danger is other drivers. They may cut across empty rows, drive too fast or ignore signs and pavement markings which is one of the common causes of parking lot accidents. Slowing down will buy you time to react and possibly avoid a collision. Parking lots are riskier than you think. Tens of thousands of crashes occur in parking lots and garage structures annually, resulting in hundreds of deaths and thousands of injuries. And, around the holidays, parking lots become even more dangerous.
Just please make sure you have toilet facilities (no dumping in the bushes if you can help it) with you and also take all your rubbish when you leave!!
If you want to find out more, click here…
New Zealand number 2 on CNN’s list of top destinations in 2011
It’s not that surprising that New Zealand made it to number 2 on the CNN list of places to be in 2011.
Apparently the team at CNN had a chat with three travel experts (Robert Reid, U.S. travel editor for Lonely Planet; Pauline Frommer, creator of Pauline Frommer’s guidebooks; and Martin Rapp, senior vice president of leisure sales at Altour) who, between them have decided that New Zealand is one of the top places to be in 2011 (second only to the big apple).
This may well be due to the 2011 Rugby World Cup which they say will add excitement to an already popular destination, however kiwified travellers and locals already know that it’s the place to be because it’s just plain gorgeous.
The crew at Transfercar however, look forward to a great new year with all the hundreds more cars and campervans we hope the 2011 Rugby World Cup will bring to the industry.
Here’s CNN’s list of top 2011 destinations:
1. New York
2. New Zealand
3. Peruvian Amazon
4. Barcelona, Spain
5. Norway
6. Albania
7. Japan
8. Guatemala
9. Bulgaria
New Zealand driving tips
If you’re planning on driving a relocation car or campervan in New Zealand for the first time, these tips will assist you in understanding the rules and regulations of safe driving practices and help you have a safe and enjoyable vacation.
Not sure if you are allowed to drive?
Check out our article Driving in New Zealand
What’s the speed limit?
Speed limits are normally clearly posted by the road side.
New Zealand is blessed with gorgeous little winding roads as well as open stretches that go for miles. Every type of road in New Zealand has its good points and its bad.
If you’re driving in rural areas, watch out for gravel verges, especially on corners. Some isolated roads are unsealed and use gravel as the surface. In these cases, drive slowly.
SURVIVING AUSTRALIA’S OUTBACK
I was trawling the web looking for articles I thought our Transfercar drivers would be interested in and found this little beauty. Not only does it contain invaluable advise about travelling in the outback of Australia, it’s a really good read!
SURVIVING AUSTRALIA’S OUTBACK
About three o’clock in the morning something woke me, and I lay listening. A strange rumbling came from somewhere out in the night. “Are you awake?” Cristi whispered softly. I whispered back that I was. “There’s something outside,” she said.
The northern Australia night was stifling. Beneath our flimsy tent we had gone to sleep in the coolest possible costumes – nothing at all. Now I got to my feet and tiptoed to the entrance to the tent. Gently I pulled open the flaps an inch apart and peered out. It was pitch black, and I could see nothing. I parted the tent flaps a bit more. There, not twenty feet from the tent, was a large crocodile.
By now Cristi was up and standing next to me. We stood there, stone-like, with nothing but a thin sheet of canvas between us and a twenty-foot crocodile.
The rumbling continued. It came from the crocodile’s stomach. It was tearing up the food we had left away from the campsite. It was a lesson of the Outback that I was happy to have learned: don’t store your food near your campsite.
Slowly it worked its way through the food, ripping apart a barbecued chicken with uncomfortable ease. Then it scurried away, toward the Herbert River, silhouetted against the horizon, immense, its red eyes gleaming in the moonlight. Finally it left, and as we went back to bed, I recalled a sign we had seen along the roadside earlier in the day. It warned travelers succinctly: “Beware of Crocodiles.”
Read the full story thanks to hackwriters.com.
Driving in Australia
Thinking of driving one of our Transfercars in Australia? Well, fine.
If you’re a visitor and hold a valid driver’s licence (in English) from your own country, fine, you’re allowed to drive throughout all of Australia. (But an international driver’s licence, if you have one, does not by itself give you the right to drive in Australia.)
If your driver’s licence is not in English, a translation may be necessary and you may also need to have an international driver’s licence.
Read the full article here….