To the left, to the left.

“That curb really came out of nowhere” was the unfortunate summary of this morning’s driving attempt. Driving on the left is hard! 

Here’s a not-so-secret: I struggle with left and right to begin with. Truly. I make an ‘L’ with my hands to confirm which is which, often. I give directions by knocking on the window and feverishly waving ‘that way’ across a driver’s face. Something about directions … left, right, North, south… crosses the wires in my brain. The words go in, the immediate intended action doesn’t always come out.

And so here I am, trying very hard to drive on the left, and all things considered it hasn’t been a disaster.  Basically, I haven’t hit anything notable yet. Luckily, Jay has taken to it very well. He is a very good and confident driver at home, and here for the most part too. And yet even he isn’t perfect. As the passenger to his lefterly driving, we’ve come closer than I would like to trees, posts and the edge of more than one cliff.  We both can’t help but chuckle when he hits the wipers instead of the turn signal. And I try only to gasp in fear when we’re going around a particularly blind corner.  But for the most part, my moderate level of terror has remained just that, moderate.

And that’s a pretty positive review given the twisting, turning roads we took through the mountains earlier this week.  We set out to Coromandel, a stunning area on the west coast outside of Auckland.  Trip Advisor noted that one of the top things to do in the area was drive the 309, a road that cuts across the mountain from one coast to the other. My best guess about the positive reviews on this drive is that it’s a badge of honour.  That anyone who’s driven around endless blind turns, or any passenger whose put their life in that driver’s hands shouts it from the rooftop that they did it.  While I never want to do it again, I suppose we can now submit our glowing review too.



But at least we’re not worried about our rental car.  It’s 125,000 kms into its life of abuse by tourists. It has stickers in multiple places reminding drivers to stay left.  The seats are stained, the hubcaps and exterior scratched and chipped.  The attendant at the car rental made it clear they were not in any way worried about the return condition.  She went so far as to say that as long as the seats were still in the car and the tires were on it, we’d be fine.  So, when that aforementioned curb came out of nowhere, I wasn’t too worried about any damage it may have caused.

But, what the curb did tell me is that perhaps I’m not ready (yet) to be the lead driver on our road trips. Instead, i’ll continue to spend my time all the way to the left – in the passenger seat.  

So the left, to the left, I’ll continue to sit… because from that seat, I get to take pictures like this one and enjoy all the stunning views of New Zealand going by.