In message , Joe Abley writes:

On 4 Jan 2005, at 13:52, Joshua Brady wrote:

...

One last question I have no problems driving in NZ with a US Licence?

Your hire car will have three pedals instead of two; there will be this strange lever in the middle that you use to change gears; the steering wheel will be on the wrong side; the fuel will be called "petrol" instead of "gas"; there will be roundabouts and the roads will actually have bends in them.

You can, and possibly should, ask for an automatic when you book your hire car, rather than a manual (stick shift). An automatic will restore the number of pedals to two (accelerator (gas) and brake), and remove the need to use the strange lever in the middle to change gears (well apart from selecting drive/park/reverse). I suspect at least half of most hire fleets are automatics so it shouldn't be too difficult to get one. Unfortunately the steering wheel will continue to be on the right hand side of the car, which you should consider a reminder to drive on the left hand side of the road :-) New Zealand roads specialise in bends, and from memory the Auckland -> Hamilton road is also through fairly rolling country so you'll have both gentle hills and bends to help keep you awake. You may also wish to keep in mind that speed limits are in kilometres per hour (not miles per hour), and speed limits are enforced with speed cameras in various (sometimes hidden) places; fortunately any hire car you get will also have a speedo showing kilometres per hour so it's just a matter of matching up the numbers.

Your US licence will be fine though, as far as I know :-)

http://www.newzealand.com/travel/transport/driving-in-nz/driving-in-new-zeal... It appears that providing your licence is current in the US, and you carry it with you (at all times while driving) you can drive in NZ for up to 12 months without a problem. Ewen