...And Highway Tolls Come to New Zealand

Many of the Kiwis we've met have remarked on how New Zealand is somewhat of a guinea pig society--the government seems to have a habit of trying out lots of things on these relatively remote islands.

Some ideas, like New Zealand's hostel system and the universal use of screw-on caps for wine bottles, have been enormous successes. Others, like the introduction of rabbits and stoats on the islands, haven't worked out quite so well.

So, when we heard about the recent opening of the Northern Gateway Toll Road, Laura and I, both of us being over-tolled veterans of the New York and New Jersey highway systems, felt a shudder of sympathy for the people of New Zealand.

On this toll road, however, you can take an enormous, four-lane divided highway north from Auckland, where you can speed along under artistically designed bridges...


...and drive through a gleaming new tunnel (an almost surreal experience after Dan's ten years of commuting through the filthy Lincoln Tunnel)...


...all for the quite reasonable price of NZ$2.00.

At first we were impressed with how many options drivers can choose from when they pay this toll. You can buy an unlimited-use pass, you can set up an account over the internet that debits your bank account each time you use the road, or you can pull over in a little staging area after the motorway, get in a queue and pay the old fashioned way. With actual money.

We attempted the latter method, but when we saw a long line of confused tourists in front of us, we decided to use yet another payment option and "pay later"--the system gives you three days to pay by phone or internet after the day you triggered the toll. Since we were in a hurry to get to Tauranga that day and didn't want to wait in a long line, this seemed like the best option.

It turns out, however, that the internet payment system doesn't really work for non-residents, so we called their pay-by-phone number to pay by credit card.

Unfortunately, after spending 40 minutes on hold (it was a toll-free number, so at least they were paying for our call), we had the perverse experience of probably costing the government more in phone charges than they got from us in toll revenues.

The phone conversation went like this:

"Hello, this is the Northern Toll Road Service Center, my name is Jennifer. How can I help you?"
"Hi. Uh, I need to pay a toll for the motorway?"
"Certainly. Your license plate number please?"
"Um, DNN751."
"DNN751. Ah yes, a blue Toyota Vitz?"

I was shocked that she could pull up the information that quickly, and then when I thought about it for a minute, I started to get a bit paranoid, knowing that the New Zealand government knows what, when and where I drive. I wanted to ask her how dirty the car looked in the picture--we had been driving on dusty gravel roads for much of the prior two days and the car was so filthy that I was surprised she could tell it was blue.

But after nearly a month in New Zealand, I'd lost all of my sarcasm, and amazingly, I kept silent.

However, no matter how long we spend here in New Zealand, Laura and I will probably never unlearn our cynicism from years of getting nickeled and dimed (and lately more like "dollared") by New York and New Jersey toll roads. So I'll go out on a limb and make one final prediction for the benefit of any Kiwi readers out there.

Tolls go in only one direction: Up.

But it was a really nice road though.