Speeding tickets for foreigners?
 

What happens if an American is caught exceeding the speed limit in NZ? The dull stretch between Christchurch and Dunedin sounds like an easy drive--what is the limit?

If an American is caught exceeding the speed limit is NZ, we will all breathe a sigh of relief, as this means the roads will be a little safer for a while.

You will get a fine. If you skip town without paying, you will probably get away with it, but may have problems with your visa next time you try to enter the country.

We'd really prefer it if you just drove within the law!

In Australia, and I'm sure New Zealand, an American, or anyone else, is treated exactly the same as a local if caught speeding. As Alan says, if you ignore the fine, you'll have problems if you wish to re-enter country. Speed limits are clearly marked on roads, both in New Zealand and Australia.

Richard, the speed limits are clearly marked on the roads. Suggest you obey them!

I didn't mean to imply that I was intending to break the law. Sometimes on open stetches it's easy to increase speeds unknowingly. I certainly will try my best to obey--don't worry. My biggest concern is staying on the left!

If you have rented a car using a credit card, and are caught speeding, the authorities may have another way to get you. On returning from my last trip to Australia in 2004, a thin white envelope from the State of New South Wales was waiting for me. I had tripped a speed camera somewhere and owed a $130 fine. In addition, the car rental company automatically charged my credit card a "handling fee" of $45 and implied that if I didn't pay the ticket, they would be held responsible and would charge my card accordingly.

If you rent a car in NZ, you might want to read the fine details of your rental agreement vis a vis speeding tickets just to know what you may be in for.

To answer your other question it is 100km on all open road including that stretch. But you pretty much won't be able to go that speed all the time except on the few motorways and straight roads. And there are plenty of speed cameras compensating for this! Speed suggstions on all corners are marked.

It is not so much speed but tourists driving on the wrong side of the road. When you see the arrows in the middle of the road pointing straight ahead in the south island - that ain't for the locals if you know what I mean ;-)

Hi RichardJ (Hey that's my name too!!)
Just remember they write the speed LIMIT on the road, it's not a TARGET.

Drive carefully, and more importantly make sure you have adequate insurance to cover yourself fully, I read that insurance is not mandatory in NZ.
Not sure if that is totally true can you NZ friends elaborate on that?

Muck

Mucky That is correct. Insurance is not mandatory. But all car rental companies have insurance as part of the rental agreement(with a hefty excess). You can usually pay more for a lower excess. However, if you read the fine print in your travel insurance policy /credit card cover it may already cover this so don't be fooled!

Most people do have insurance tho.

In Europe (except Italy) we always decline the car rental insurance, knowing our VISA or Mastercard will cover 100%. Last trip I broke a reartail light and VISA picked up every penny I was charged. I was so impressed. Rental car insurance always comes with such a high deductible. I would not rent a car anywhere in the world if I did not have adequate insurance. I will check with my credit card companies to make sure New Zealand is covered.

Richard - Some US credit cards DO NOT offer the same car rental coverage in NZ and Australia that they do in other countries.

I did some research on this recently and learned that in order for our credit card company to offer auto coverage we must decline ALL insurance offered by the rental car company. In NZ and OZ, you can't decline the coverage that's included in the rental price (I've tried).

You can, of course, decline the fee to lower the excess, but you can't decline coverage altogether.

Because of this, you can either pay more to lower the excess, or take your chances with the high excess.

In our experience in OZ and NZ, the additional amount to lower the excess usually comes to $15-20 a day. If you don't pay to lower the excess, the excess can run as high as $2,700.

In all our trips to NZ and OZ, we've never paid the additional $ to lower the excess. Instead, we shop around for the rental car company that offers the lowest excess and take our chances (so far, so good).

In a recent trip to Perth, we found the lowest excess at a local company we'd never heard of. We paid a wee bit more for the car rental, but the lower excess more than made up for it. Turned out to be a good experience - the rental car agency even dropped off the car at our hotel.

I'd suggest you read the fine print and give your credit card company a call.