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In most states in the US, you can get take the written test to get your permit to drive and 15 and can start driving as long as there is an adult in the car to supervise. Obviously different states have different restrictions on when and where you can drive at 15 and how long you have to hold the permit before you can get your license, but overall, it is a general permit to drive. Now maybe some of you know more about this process and maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t remember any restriction on what you could drive; automatic, manual, car, truck or whatever, as long as there was an adult in the car you could drive it. Then at 16 you can head on into the local DMV and take the practical driving test and as long as you pass you can drive anything you want (well maybe not a big 18-wheeler but you get what I’m saying).
Apparently, it is different in every other country. When you take your driving test in New Zealand, if you take the test in an automatic car, your license is restricted to driving only automatics. If you take the test in a manual, however, your license is unrestricted and you can drive either an automatic or a manual. But here is where it gets scary. If you have a driver’s license from the US, where we drive on the right hand side of the road and do not have to know how to drive a manual to get a full driver’s license, you can fill out a form and pay the $40 fee and get a full New Zealand driver’s license. Now, I don’t know about you, but I can barely drive a manual and even the idea of driving a manual on the left hand side of the road meaning that I would have to shift with my left hand terrifies me. And yet, my license would allow me to do just that.
None of this should make any difference at all because I don’t have a car in Queenstown because it’s just not that necessary here. Almost everything that I could need or want is within a 20-minute walking distance (except for my job and the Wal-Mart like Warehouse store which are about an hour and a half walk away but that doesn’t really matter because I can always take the bus). Here is the kicker, though; I work for a camper can and car rental company. Who cares? That’s what I thought at least until I realized that occasionally I was going to have to drive these giant 6 person camper vans and cars. Ok, still not too bad, I mean I had a camper van for a while when I first got to New Zealand so I can drive on the left hand side of the road if I have to. I will inevitably hit the windshield wipers every time that I try to use the indicator/blinker but that probably wont cause to much damage in the over all scheme of things. The damage will come when they ask me to drive the manual camper vans or cars and they have and I have laughed at them. If they want to keep those nice shiny camper vans and cars nice and shiny, they really need to find someone else to drive them. Apparently, however, that will not be an option for long and I am going to have to learn to drive a manual, not just a manual car but a manual camper van 3.3 meters high and weighing well over 3000 pounds. That does not sound like a safe idea. I hope that their insurance is completely up to date.