Adventuring the Wild West (Coast)
Our Upper South Island Programme Delivery Lead, Anne-Marie, recently took a trip to the West Coast to connect with schools and community partners over there. Read on to hear about how she found the experience of driving on West Coast roads and the varied conditions she came across!
Earlier this month I visited schools on the West Coast including Greymouth, Reefton, Karamea and Southwestland High Schools.
Our community partners Police, FENZ, St John and Road Safety Coordinators joined me as we visited each school talking with groups of students to encourage them to set up a SADD Group.
West Coast weather can be quite challenging for driving and many roads are under repairs or single lanes and lots of one lane bridges.
Some of the road challenges I encountered included:
Torrential rain the wipers couldn’t keep up with
Roads turned into rivers
Washed out roads
Wild pigs
Wild goats
Wild weka
Tailgaters
Crazy drivers passing on double yellow lines and corners
Snow and heaps of road works
My key learning experience from this new type of driving hazards was slow down and drive to the conditions. With less speed I have more time to adjust and adapt to situations as they arise. As I was also travelling such long distances, I took many breaks along the way to keep me fresh and my focus on driving.
The West Coast has beautiful scenery but is very remote. Emergency Services are at least half an hour to an hour away from incidents that need them so safe driving is very important.
