I am planning to go to New Zealand in August for 2 weeks. But I am concerning will the extreme weather (snow fall, icy ground, heavy rainfall) seriously affect the road condition in South Island during winter.
Will the poor condition only occurs in the terrain area? Or it will also occurs at the main roads in between towns as well, like Christchurch to Dunedin, or Dunedin to Queenstown. Will that be better/easier/safer to join tours or travel by coaches??
The roads in sheltered areas might be affected by frost but there are often signs telling you where those areas are. The icy areas are also indicated. Snow does not occur often….there may be 1-2 snow storms in areas where you drive. Usually the snow is gone after a day.
Heavy rainfall may occur in some areas but that will depend on what weather is hitting us at the time…..a lot of areas tend to be calm and clear over winter ( or at least it is on much of the east coast of the south island….in fact the west coast has less rain in the winter than in the spring!)
The climate in NZ is not like continental places as we are more oceanic so we do not get as hot or cold and its quite variable over an area. Usually bad weather is not more than 1-2 days and just hope that you will get a clear run!
Editors Comment:
Just thought that I would add a comment about driving in Christchurch in the winter.
Early in the mornings you may strike icy roads and some times there is black ice. It is usually gone by about 10am and you do not get icy roads every day over winter. The ice can get bad up on the Port Hills at times.
The months for ice are usually June and July. After that it gets better and would be rare.
As regards snow – we would average about 1-2 falls a year. Some years we don’t even get a snowfall. If we do get a snowfall it can affect driving, depending on how heavy the snowfall is.