I spent my Christmas/New Years in New Zealand (NZ), my home country that I haven’t been to since before Covid. Had a wonderful time catching up with family and friends but re­alized, traveling around NZ, one of the reasons why I left and now live in Las Vegas! NZ is a gorgeous country don’t get me wrong, probably the most beautiful country in the world, and fantastic for visiting but there are very few motorways in NZ, and the speed limit is archaic! 50km (31 mph) on the surface streets, 80km (49.7 mph) on the smaller country roads, with an average of 100km (62.24 mph) on the main roads, and sometimes, if you are lucky, 110km (68.35mph) on the new motorway around Auckland, for example. The roads are mostly single-lane throughout the whole country and in the cities - very different to the 3 lane standard streets in Las Vegas that we are used to, where we can drive 45 mph (72.4km) around town!! So that is definitely one of the reasons we left NZ! Plus, the fact that Denie maxed out his NZ driver’s license, and his US one, with speeding tickets when we lived there in 2006!!! Luckily, we only had one speeding ticket this trip! He was driving so self-contained too! Keeping the speedo to only 9 kms above the speed limit, but even that was too much!!! The cop who pulled us over was very nice about it, especially when Denie originally insulted him about being a Pom (a downunder term for English people), due to his accent. He was a bit taken aback and said, “No, I’m from the land where sheep have no tails, and motorcycles rule.” I immediately said, “Isle of Man!” and he was quite impressed. But we still got a ticket! Fortunately, only NZ$30 (equivalent to US$20) and 10 demerit points. Denie cheekily asked how many demerit points one is allowed, to which the officer replied 100. Denie’s response, “Well that’s good – I have another 90 to go!”

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     People drive so slowly over there, and the weather is always changeable. Four seasons in one day! Needless to say, we only saw one Triumph go by us on the other side of the street on a sunny day. Quite a few minis though! And yes, it did take a bit to get used to driving on the left-hand side of the road again!! As Denie said, “just make sure you keep the steering wheel in the middle of the road!” And the other annoying thing was getting used to using the indicator there. It is the opposite here, on the right, and the windscreen wipers are on the left. Needless to say, the windscreen wipers were well used – even when it wasn’t raining!!!

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     I am happy to be back on American soil, back in my “now” hometown Las Vegas. Although it is pretty chilly – after our NZ summer! As well as driving on the opposite side of the road there they have the opposite seasons to us!

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     My main aim for this year as President of our wonderful little club is to get more members involved in our activities and expand our membership to other British car enthusiasts here in Vegas. Your help with this would be very much appreciated! In order to keep our club alive and thriving we need to expand our membership and bring in some new blood! Thank you to all members who have contributed time and energy so far and thank you to the new board. My other passion is vintage car racing which means I will be away for several events and meetings this year but am grateful to have a board and active club members who will keep the wheels turning!