General Information » Getting Around » Getting Around

By far the most popular and easiest way to travel around is by car. New Zealand has one of the highest car ownership rates in the world – a staggering 2.5 million cars to a little over four million people, with a full fifth of those clogging up Auckland’s roads. All of which says a lot about Kiwis’ love affair with being the drivers of their own destiny – or at least their daily commute.

Visitors planning to tour the country will make good use of the State Highway network, which is made up of 100 main roads across both the North and South Islands. The star of the show is State Highway 1 (SH1), which runs the full length of the country (with a quick break for the InterIsland ferry service), from Cape Reinga in the north to Bluff in the far south, and connects New Zealand’s five biggest urban areas.

SH1 also includes NZ’s busiest stretch of road, just south of the Auckland central motorway junction, which sees upwards of 190,000 vehicles pass through it each day.

All other forms of transport are available to a greater or lesser degree. Domestic flights to main centres are frequent and fairly reasonable in price (particularly if booked in advance), with Air New Zealand being the main carrier. For long-distance, inter-city travel, buses are more reliable and cover considerably more of the country than trains, which, sadly, operate only for tourists along scenic routes, although city commuter services fare better. The New Zealand Transport Strategy claims it is committed to making improvements to the rail network over the next decade, but this remains to be seen.

Good ferry services operate both between the North and South Island (see box ) and to the various islands (Stewart, Great Barrier, Waiheke) off the mainland, carrying more than four million passengers a year.