Sat Nav required to use in New Zealand and UK

[franchise_mark]

Hi. I have searched the past forum posts, but cannot find the information needed.

I am looking to buy my first Sat Nav system. The trigger is a trip to New Zealand in January when a system would be useful. Instead of hiring, it would be good to buy a system that can be used in NZ, and then brought back to the UK and loaded with UK and Europe maps.

Can anyone recommend a system and supplier of the necessary maps please? As a complete new-comer searching the web has just confused me, so your help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Mark

[prl1862]

Having spent 3 weeks driving in New Zealand in March/April this year I can honestly say it is the easiest place to navigate I have been to in the World. We did around 2000 miles of driving and never got lost. All you really need is a good road atlas since there is only ever one road to pretty much anywhere.

That being said, I did look into sat nav before I went and found that there really wasn't any available. That has changed now. TomTom do offer NZ mapping. You can read about it here

[robertn]

I have mates in NZ. Obviously Navman is the main player, as it's there home turf. Garmin and TomTom are also strong and actively promoting products.

As said, the roads in NZ are pretty easy. There was a story a few years ago about some Australians that followed the SatNav into the back blocks, along mountain roads (dirt tracks), through a locked gate (Someone opened it for them at 5AM). What should have been a 3 hour drive took them over 8 hours, but they saw parts of the country that very few people do........

One thing I found when visiting is quite often the "Back roads" on the south island are an easy 100km/h, and the satnav would take you miles out the way to get to a main road (an easy 100km/h), then other times, the "back roads" are really "back roads" - thank god I hired a 4x4 truck. One road was up a dry river bed, we had decide to follow the Satnav and see what happened, just for fun. Only an idiot would have turned off the main road......

So as for getting a SatNav, maps for NZ appear to cost about as much as maps for Europe, have a look on the Navman, Tomtom and Garmin webs sites, before committing to a device, make sure it will take maps for NZ.

[Skippy]

I'm a native of NZ and know it all quite well, but I would suggest that you don't bother with the expense of buying NZ maps for your GPS unless you are going to spend a lot of time in Auckland and Wellington.

To be honest, there really aren't that many roads and you will probably just get instructions like "Turn left, then drive 160 miles to your destination, on the right".

May I suggest that you spend your money on a spiral bound copy of the "Kiwi Pathfinder" map book. You can get it from any decent book shop in NZ. Even if you do get a GPS, get the map too - it has lots of points of interest and information about the roads (ie, unsealed, narrow, difficult or scenic routes) that you will find useful. It has loads of points of interest marked that you can stop and see. The rental car company will probably give you a map showing which roads you have to avoid. Don't try to drive your car up 90 beach either, take the bus.

The roads with single digit numbers like 1, 2, 3 etc are State Highways and are mostly single carriageway, though there are about 120 miles of motorway in Auckland and Wellington.

Roads with double digit numbers like 43 are provincial highways and can be quite twisty - especially in the scenic sections. Some highways are unsealed (ie gravel). This isn't as bad as it sounds and you can still make good progress on them. Unclassified roads are best avoided unless it's a fairly short trip.

Overall, the roads in NZ are much slower than in Europe though and the 100km/h limit (60 MPH) is strictly enforced by unmarked police cars with moving radar and speed cameras in unmarked cars. If you get caught at 50km/h or more over the speed limit then they will confiscate your licence on the spot. Don't drink and drive, the police routinely setup checkpoints and breath test EVERYONE, especially during the holiday season.

There is a wacky road rule whereby you are turning left and you have to give way to someone who is turning right into the same road. Completely the opposite to the rest of the world - get someone to explain it to you when you pickup your car! Also, Kiwis take road priorities seriously. If the sign says "Give Way" then you give way to other traffic. Conversely, if you have the right of way then you go, you don't sit there waiting for someone on a Stop or Give Way sign to go first!

Watch for advisory speeds on corners. If it's on the open road and it says 50km/h on a corner then that means that this is the safe and comfortable speed for the corner. You can quite legally and safely take the corner much faster than that but it's a good guideline.

Probably the only thing a GPS unit would be really useful for in NZ is finding your way around the cities (which isn't difficult anyway, except for Auckland) and telling you what your ETA is (some roads are quite slow going) and where the next petrol is (often few and far between so fill up when you get the chance!).

Have a good trip!
_________________
Gone fishing!

[franchise_mark]

prl1862, robertn, Skippy

Thank you all very much for taking the time to reply. It seems that the consensus is not to bother with sat nav for NZ. I will certainly invest in "Kiwi Pathfinder" as you recommend Skippy, and thank you for your tips on driving in NZ. I can't wait to start now.

[prl1862]

This is the atlas I used to navigate round NZ. It has clear roads maps and excellent town plans for most towns.

[robertn]

Good advise skippy, but a few points I have to disagree with after spending a few months there
South Island driving is sometimes fast on very minor roads - particularly in Canturbury and McKensize Country - turn off the main road and drive along the top of the Canels when going through Mckensize Country (Mt Cook region) - they are private roads, but public is welcome to use them and you get spectacular views.
"dirt" roads are anything from averaging 80km/h or more to averaging 20km/hour or less, ask some locals if in doubt. Theres one spectacular highway that takes 6 hours to do 130km (Some lake with a big Maori name in the middle of the north island), worth while as long as you think of it as a 6 hour drive, not a 130km drive. If you have kids, be prepared to deal with car sickness (Experiance is a wonderful thing:sad:)

Watch the speed advisary signs, sometimes the advise speed is close to the the maximum...
90 Mile beach - if you are going up there, get hold of a 4x4 and take a drive up the beach youself - it's a fantastic experience - we did it in my
brothers 4x4 car (at his suggestion) and it was the highlight of our trip. Apparently people do it in rental 2wd cars, that would be a bit silly......

I really want to go back, we had such a good time.......

[Skippy]

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