Cheers

Despite the country road through Reikorangi (Ngatiawa Road) being winding and narrow and a lot wider than the English hedge-lined country lanes with an upper speed limit of 100 (I rarely exceed 80 on the rare straight), I find the driving experience in New Zealand extremely orderly and relatively safe.

I have previously rambled on about the lack of visible policemen on the streets, I understand that a police car is regularly parked on State Highway One just as you leave Waikanae town to catch anyone exceeding the 50 limit (the limit changes to 80 about 200 metres farther on). I have been accustomed to the town limit of 50 and Highway 80 or the occasional 100 in the rural areas. One is so much more aware of your speed when enforcement is done without any real argument.

I am not a heavy drinker. Come to think of it, most people would not consider me a light drinker, either. Perhaps a beer or two once in a while on a hot day. Which is quite useful, considering that the strict drink-driving limit specifications have been slashed by 50% for the silly season. The change was naturally the subject of huge public debate, with some extreme factions calling for a total zero tolerance policy. Whilst the average New Zealander cannot be considered anything near a teetotaller, it appears that most drivers are extremely observant when it comes to taking a chance after having a drink or two.

From Monday 1 December 2014, the alcohol limit for drivers aged 20 years and over will be lowered. This change means that drivers aged 20 years and over must not drive if:

- the amount of alcohol in their breath is more than 250 micrograms of alcohol per litre of breath.
- the amount of alcohol in their blood is more than 50 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood

For drivers under the age of 20 years, the limit remains at zero.

This caused my mind to drift back to memory mode of the mid 1960’s in my single days whilst living at the Paarde Vlei Club in Somerset West. Not may of us owned cars in those days (at a monthly gross income of less than One Hundred Rand and cars costing in the region of Thousands), we unashamedly made use of the more senior residents (mid twenties) as non-paying pals.

Weekends were reserved exclusively sports (playing hockey, snooker and billiards) and socialising (mostly drinking, where a bit of the old pay-packet was left over.) As the hockey games were played on Saturday afternoons, there was always the morning until about 2:00 pm to kill. There’s not a lot of thinking required to imagine how those morning were spent. The watering hole was at the Grand Hotel (Coral lounge) in central Cape Town. During those years drinking and driving did not receive much attention (perhaps we didn’t pay much attention to radio or newspapers then), but I shudder to think of the sort of conditions we were creating by the habits we had. Thankfully, the world has changed for the better…