another curve in the road

New Zealand is made completely of volcanos- extinct and active. This means that it is the land of a million curves in the road, as you are just driving up and down these mountains. Rarely is their a sign for windy roads- unless it is a hari kari sort of situation . Looking on the map it would usually appear that the road was straight- this was cartographer deceit - they probably just couldn't fit in all those little curve marks on the paper without getting vertigo from the exercise.

Often I was ready to stop the journey and go back to my hotel because of the never ending bends !Just as one was about to despair though, a magnificent vista would appear causing you to be glad you suffered the road madness to get to the said destination.

The only thing worse than the continual bends are signs indicating the road is going to go through some sort of gorge. This meant several hundred hairpin bends, usually involving a cliff edge where the average speed to take the bend was 10 kms. On one particular gorge, it was wide enough for 1 and a half cars, but two cars and big trucks were actually using the road. No guard rails- these seem to not have reached NZ shores. The drop was a few hundred feet off the cliff, heavy mist was falling and I was routinely pushed right to edge by some antipidean version of a Mack truck. At one point I thought I should find a lay by to pull over but then determined I would likely not get back in the car again so thought I should stick it out. My cousin had told me it was such a pretty drive around there!! After reaching my destination, and carefully prising my fingers off the steering wheel, headed for the mini bar where a few gin and tonics restored my sense of well being and obliterated the memory of the trip well enough for me to continue on the next day.

My aunt in Christchurch had been telling me about a stretch of road near her holiday home. " trucks go over the cliff there every week" was her comment. "Why doesn't the transport agency put up guard rails " was my response. "Oh that might be an idea " was her surprised response.