Headed to Australia or New Zealand and worried about driving on the left-hand side of the road?  Here are some tips and tricks for making it happen without using up the deductible on your rental car insurance.
 
First, the challenges.  If you’ve never driven on the left, it can take a day or two to adjust.  The steering wheel is on the right side of the car, and everything else is opposite to what we’re used to in the U.S. as well (except the brake and accelerator pedals).  You go to flip on your turn signal and the windshield wipers screech across the dry windshield.  You reach for the gear shift and jam your fingers into the side of the door.  You dutifully look for oncoming traffic before turning and realize, mid-turn, that cars are coming at you from the other side of the road.  You attempt to stick the key into the ignition with your right hand and realize you’re bumping up against plastic.  You walk up to your parked car, unlock the door, and sit down only to realize that you’re in the passenger seat.
 
But think of this as fun.  It’s all part of the adventure!  Driving Down Under is the best way to travel, especially if you’re headed to New Zealand.  The scenery bumps right up against the side of the road, unlike the superhighways lined with sound barriers in the U.S.  Even major highways have nothing more than one lane in each direction, so you experience the best of New Zealand -- the landscape -- as you cruise around mountain passes, coastal curves and long, straight bridges over braided rivers.  Many consider the time spent in the car as the best part of their vacation.
 
The best piece of advice is to think about hugging the center lane with your right hip.  You will instinctually want to drive with the center lane as far from your right hip as possible, but naturally that would run the left tires off the side of the road.  So think to yourself, “center lane, right hip, center lane, right hip, center lane, right hip.”
 
When turning onto another street, look at the correct lane for oncoming traffic.  And then when you turn, remember that left turns hug the corner whereas right turns require crossing over a lane -- just the opposite as in the U.S.  Your mantra for turning should be, “think left lane, think left lane, think left lane.”  And when in doubt, look in every direction before you turn. It will only cost you a few seconds yet can help avoid big problems.
 
Another consideration is to book an automatic rather than manual shift car. Sometimes it’s easier to have one less thing to do “backwards” and it can help you concentrate on staying on the correct side of the road.
 
The passenger can do a little work to keep you straight as well.  If your left tires start going off the side of the road, they can warn you verbally, “right, right, right.”  That should keep you from driving off the road.
 
Overall, don’t worry. Your natural instincts won’t let you drive towards oncoming traffic.  Just remember to switch back to your old patterns when you return home!
 
At Down Under Endeavours, we’ve tackled this challenge personally, and have helped countless clients have the driving trip of their dreams Down Under. 

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See a sample self-driving itinerary in New Zealand

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