Aaron Parecki

@aaronpk Ooh, how awesome! Auckland, and NZ in general, is fantastic. Hope you have a great time.

@Miraz Interesting to hear about the arrows painted on the road. Over here, a few highways that are popular with overseas tourists have road signs that say “drive on the left in Australia.”

@JMaxB To be clear, I love them as well. It was just that crucial moment of 'which way does this thing turn?'

@cliffordbeshers Fortunately they have cars that are also backwards. The rule I learned in my one UK visit was to keep the center line on the driver's side, just like in the US but with different cars. I love roundabouts -- drove from London through Dorsetshire without hitting a stop light -- but yes, they were scary.

@cliffordbeshers LOL

@cliffordbeshers 😁

@Miraz Yup. I worked on that so hard that when I got back to the U.S., I kept wanting to turn into the wrong lane for something like two years.

Roundabouts created a moment of sheer terror. Then I realized I could follow the car in front of me. If I couldn't figure out how to get off, I could go around again.

@cliffordbeshers Excellent approach. On the now distant and rare occasions when I was overseas and driving on the 'other' side of the road turns were what got me.

@Miraz Yeah, I saw some and I think I remember reading that there was a plan to add them everywhere. I developed my own method, which was to look out my window and down to find the centerline. If it wasn't there, and I saw the shoulder, I knew I was wrong.

@cliffordbeshers @aaronpk Before Covid NZ had heaps of tourists from overseas many of whome drove around sightseeing. On roads outside cities, where tourists are likely to be, there are sometimes painted arrows on the road to help point out which side to drive on.

@aaronpk The shadows are what got me.

Also, for driving, I'll share an experience. In cities and towns, I found it easy to drive on the left, because all the signs and traffic keep you honest. It was when I got out to a lonely highway with a simple stripe down the middle that I had trouble. There was nothing to distinguish it from a U.S. back country road, except those idiots a few miles ahead coming at me in my lane...oh, wait...

@aaronpk Woohoo! Welcome to our country!