Before setting off overlanding back in 2001 I needed a bus driver's licence. As I was in the UK at the time I surrendered my NZ car driving licence for a British one and then took the bus driving test. All easy peasy. My UK licence has taken me all over; India and Nepal. Turkey, Syria and Jordan. Even Zimbabwe, Ethiopia and Lesotho, so I was a bit shocked to find that all of the driving I've done in NZ since 2004 has been illegal.
My understanding was that holders of overseas driver's licences could drive here for 12 months no worries. And almost all of them can. But not me. Because I'd previously had a NZ driver's licence and that had, in NZ, now expired, I was driving illegally. If I was stopped I could have been fined and the car impounded! Oops! So to all the people who've let me drive their cars here over the last five years, "sorry". To the rental company I hired a car from ... "More fool you."
So now I've got to apply again for a NZ driver's licence, but because it's within 90 days of returning from overseas I don't have to resit any tests. I might not mention my extended "holiday" here in 2006! The up-side, if there is one, is that I'll get to keep my UK licence. The downside is that my UK bus licence can't be converted to a NZ one - apparently we have "stricter requirements here."
Oh take me back to Africa where red tape is much less prevalent and oh so easily avoided.
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