Can anyone tell me where the nearest AANZ office is to the Auckland airport? We're heading from there down to Whakatane, and I can't tell which office is closest when I look at the AANZ website.

Thanks!

Lee Ann

Lee Ann

The Nearest office for you to use would be the Manukau office at 50 Cavendish Drive Manukau. If you are picking up your rental from the International Terminal then all you have to do is the following.

AS you leave the international terminal at the first set of lights go straight ahead. You will get to a roundabout, take the second exit, i.e. veer right. At the next roundabout turn left. You are now on Puhinui Road. This is a 100kph zone, travel on this road for about 3 km you will come to a flyover and set of lights. Go straight ahead under the flyover.

You are now in a 50kph zone.

Stay on Puhinui road. Go through the next set of lights. You will come to a hard left hand turn (you have to take it the road bends that way) after this turn an immeadiate right do not go straight ahead. This will take you over the railway line. You have another sharp right hand turn as you come down the other side of the rail bridge.

A sharp left hand turn will have you back on Puhinui road. Follow this for about 2 km's until you get to a roundabout. Turn right onto Lambie drive. Go about 300 metres and then at the next roundabout turn left. This is Cavendish drive. The AA office is on your left about 250 metres along.

From the AA office to the motorway south (For Whakatane) it is even easier.

Get back onto cavendish drive heading the same way. Turn right at the next set of lights onto Great South Road. Stay in the left lane. Go through one set of lights. At the second turn left (though not too sharp a left as this will take onto the motorway up to Auckland.) You want to go over the motorway bridge turn left and this is the onramp for South.

I can give you directions onto Whakatane if you like either the quick route or the scenic one.

Hope you enjoy your stay in Whakatane.

I also hope this helps.

Steve

Thanks, Steve!

Oh, boy, we get to deal with a roundabout right away, huh? Yikes! How do those things work?

>>Get back onto cavendish drive heading the same way<<

As if we were just driving past the AA office on our way elsewhere, or as if we were heading back toward Auckland?

We'd love the scenic directions to Whakatane. We plan to take our time getting used to driving on the other side of the road and taking breaks to stretch.

Lee Ann

Lee Ann - assuming you're American, they should work the same way as yours (except I think yours are called "traffic circles&quot. The key difference is that you go left as you enter them, not right. In the interests of survival this is an important differentiator. Here in Australia some drivers seem to have trouble understanding the rules, but they're pretty simple. Assuming the NZ rules are the same as ours, traffic already on the roundabout has right-of-way over other vehicles entering it. You only need to use your turn indicator when you intend to exit it. And if it has dual lanes you make sure you're in the outside (left) lane well before you exit, just as you make sure you're in the appropriate lane well before turning off a normal road.

Re-reading my post I hope I haven't done more harm than good, but the basic proposition is that you do everything you'd do at home but convert your "rights" to "lefts". In practice it will be more obvious than a recitation of the rules makes it seem.

Lee Ann

With "get back onto Cavendish Drive" you are going in the same direction you were when you arrived at the AA office.

As Neil has said roundabouts are fairly simple. Just give way to traffic coming from the right and to traffic on roads entering the round about on you immeadiate right.

The first three roundabouts you will face are single lane. The first double lane one is on the Lambie Drive Cavendish Drive intersection. This is the one you need to stay in the left land for.

The Scenic route to Whakatane starts out the same as the quick route.

You get onto the Southern Motorway (Highway 1) heading south. Stay on here for approx 40 km.

When you start to go up a hill (The Bombays) you are about 3 km's from you left turn exit. You want to exit into State Highway 2 which is signposted for Tauranga, Coromandel and Thames.

State Highway 2 is a single lane road and a bit slower than highway 1.

Drive for about 50 km's. Turn left at the Ngatea turnoff. This is still state highway 2. Hauraki golf course is on this corner.

Stay on highway 2 (this takes you most of the way to Whakatane).

You will drive through Ngatea, Paeroa and Waihi. Little town along the way. Pleasant little places. Paeroa is famous in NZ for a softdrink so you will see a giant bottle in the main street. Waihi is an old gold mining town.

The highlight of the route aroung here is the Karangahake Gorge. This goes through the Kaimai ranges and takes you through to the Bay of Plenty. Very picturesque drive. There are plenty of opportunities to get out and look at the river or go for a walk on the route of an old railway that used to go through the gorge. There are a few cafes dotted through here to top at for refreshment.

The gorge is covered in Native bush which makes for a scenic drive.

Once into the Bay of Plenty after Waihi the first town of any size is KatiKati. It agin is a nice little town with murals depicting its history painted on many of the shops and businesses.

After Kati Kati it is onto Tauranga. You enter Tauranga through Bethlehem on the outskirts. Tauranga is not too big. It is worth a stop as I think it is a good looking town. You can foolow the signposts for downtown park and go for a bit of a walk. There are some reasonable cafes not too far from the water.

Across from Tauranga is Mount Maunganui. It can be reached over the bridge from downtown Tauranga. Again signposted. Very nice ocean beach in "The Mount".

From Mount Maunganui you can follow the signs for Whakatane. Back on highway 2.

You go through Te Puke which is the next town. The kiwifruit capital of teh world. They even have a mini theme park for the little furry brown things. (It is on your left after you have gone through Te Puke about 8 km's further on).

After Te Puke there is a left turn still staying on highway 2 to Whakatane. You have to take this otherwise you end up in Rotorua.

You basically follow the coast now for about another 60 km's until you get to Whakatane.

THe road stops being highway 2 in the little town of Matata. There is an intersection with a signpost for Gisborne. Do not turn here just stay going straight ahead for Whakatane.

When you get to Whakatane you go past a factory on you right (the board mills) and over a bridge. There is a roundabout just over the bridge. For the town centre turn left here. This is landing road. Stay on this road.

Go straight ahead through the next two roundabouts. Past the Gull service station and the Shell service station.

The road then becomes Domain road. Keep going straight ahead past KFC until you get to a T intersection. Turn left (there is another shell service station here with a MacDonalds on one side and a Burger King on the other. This road is Commerce Street.

Head down Commerce street until the next roundabout. Turn right. You are now in the Strand. This is the main shopping street. At the next roundabout you will see the information centre on you left. you will be able to pick up information about local attractions and accomodation here.

I hope this ramble is useful to you.

Just to let you know. If are driving at a leasurely pace it should take you around 4 hours to get from the airport to Whakatane.

If you are going to go slow to look at the scenery remember to keep hard left to let the others through as there are very few passing places especially between Paeroa and Tauranga.

Enjoy your trip.

Steve

Thank you, Neil and Steve! Thankfully, my husband will be doing most of the driving, so I'll let him worry about the roundabouts. I haven't had to drive in one since I lived in Los Angeles - we don't have them here in New Mexico.

Thank you, too, for the directions to Whakatane. We're staying in a hostel on Domain Road, so now I even know how to get us there!

I didn't realize we'd drive through Paeroa - I guess we'll have to stop for an L & P. <g>

You all are great! I'll post a trip review when we return.

Lee Ann

I still need to post my trip report, but I wanted to pop in and thank Steve for the excellent directions to Whakatane. The drive was beautiful, and we were especially amused by the chickens who appeared at almost every place we stopped to take pictures.

We decided not to visit the AA office you suggested since we had a map in our rental car, and we found that the information sites all had AA maps as well.

Lee Ann

Lee Ann

I'm glad my directions helped. I hope you enjoyed Whakatane. It is the town I grew up in, my folks still live there.

I had a look back over my last post, sheesh how embarrassing. More spelling mistakes than you could point a stick at. Sometimes my fingers and my brain do not seem to be connected.

I look forward to your trip report.

Regards

Steve

Steve, I enjoyed everything about Whakatane except getting seasick on our dolphin swim. <g>

Lee Ann