On Monday, a traveller living in Orlando, Florida , posed an innocent question to social media: how could they be a considerate tourist in New Zealand? Within two days, the post received more than 500 comments from locals and visitors eager to tell the traveller (and, potentially, Americans in general) how they should behave when holidaying in Aotearoa . Posted to the social media platform Reddit, on a page dedicated to New Zealand, the traveller (under the username @madmartigan00) explained they had seen their “fair share” of tourists while living in Orlando . “While many are wonderful, some can be downright unpleasant and/or rude,” they said.
As a result, they wanted to do their best to be thoughtful when visiting in January for their honeymoon. “Other than learning the rules of the road, what can we do to respect NZ, its people, and their customs?” People appeared all too happy to pass on sage advice . The top-voted comment covered an irritation many locals have concerning tourists; slow driving.
“If you are on a highway and can’t safely maintain the speed limit due to the mountainous roads, pull to the left when it’s safe and let people behind you pass,” wrote an American who had visited New Zealand in April. While they had experience driving difficult roads, even they were frustrated but tourists unwilling to pull over. “We were behind people going 80 in a 100 even on the straightaways with 10 cars lined up behind them and that was murder,” they w.
