To the left, to the left

To the left, to the left, everytime you drive ya gotta get left....

I overlapped with the previous au pair by 4 days. She drove me around for 3 days and then on the 4th day I told her I wanted to drive us around so that she could scream at me if I was about to do something horribly wrong. Because the day she left meant I was the one driving the boys around and I wanted to feel confident.

I know some people who waited a few months to drive here before they felt comfortable. I figured it was one of those sink or swim things -- just throw yourself in the deep end and see if you float. If so, then excellent! If not, the nanny might be out of her job.

The hardest part about driving on the left is that you are no longer sitting on the left side of the car, you are on the right. Which means the gear shift, the windshield wipers, the brights, the rear view mirror, and all that stuff are on the other side! When reversing you don't look over your right shoulder, you look over your left. When signalling, you don't flick it up to signal a right turn, you flick it down. The door is on your right, your seat belt is on the right, the window buttons are on your right.... before you know it your brain is horribly screwed up. After being here 6 weeks I still feel weird sometimes driving on the left, but driving on the right now seems weird too.

A common thing Americans do is drift towards the left side of the lane while driving. I have to tell myelf to drift to the center of the road at all times otherwise I run the risk of sideswiping the parked cars on my left. And in NZ oftentimes the second lane turns into a parking lane suddenly, so you have to constantly be on the lookout.

For any kind of turn you have to have a green light or have a "give way" sign in order to go. Even when there is not a car in sight. If a car is driving towards you and you both want to turn into the same street, the car in the middle of the street gets to turn first... in the States, the car that is closer to the sidewalk gets to turn first..... just think about it....

I have not gone the wrong way on a roundabout or suddenly found myself facing head-on traffic. A couple times though, generally outside of the city, I have been merrily driving down the road when I realized I was on the wrong side. Once you get past the craziness of Auckland City the signs, lines, and other indicators become quite scarce.

Good luck to anyone about to face this new challenge!