Joshua caught up to the car at traffic lights and asked the occupants to be more careful. The passenger replied, \u201cOkay, I thought we were,\u201d before doing up her window. As the car drove off, stickered as members of the New Zealand Motor Caravan Association, she opened it again and shouted: \u201cGet off the road\u201d.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not an isolated experience. Over the 17 days and 1591km the pair spent cycling in New Zealand, they said they received abuse daily, including drivers giving them the finger. <\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a shame, because it\u2019s an incredible country and the people we\u2019ve met face to face have been super friendly,\u201d said George, a chimney sweep. <\/p>\n
In Southeast Asia, he said, road users were more aware of each other despite hectic conditions.<\/p>\n
\u201cLots is happening, but people tend to be more forgiving. Here, it\u2019s almost a regular occurrence \u2013 not just close passes, but the general attitude. It\u2019s been a very aggressive approach by drivers here, which stands out from any country we\u2019ve been in so far.\u201d<\/p>\n
Joshua said that despite narrow roads and limited shoulders, cyclists are common and signage regularly reminds drivers to \u201cshare the road\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019d think people would be more aware of us, but they\u2019re not. They\u2019re not as courteous and don\u2019t give us as much room as in other countries,\u201d he shared in a social media reel of the incident.<\/p>\n
Joshua and George Kohler cycling in the chaotic streets of Vietnam. Photo \/ Instagram, @joshpkohler<\/p>\n
Members of the Tour Aotearoa Facebook group had shared similar fears for years. Police Inspector Peter McKennie said many rural roads were narrow and not designed with cyclists in mind, urging motorists to only pass when it\u2019s safe.<\/p>\n
NZTA had widened shoulders and created shared paths over the past two decades, but attitudes remained harder to change. The Ministry of Transport would soon seek public consultation on introducing a minimum overtaking gap for vehicles passing cyclists.<\/p>\n
Joshua\u2019s reel drew hundreds of supportive comments, including apologies from New Zealanders. Several NZMCA members said they sent the video to management, though CEO Bruce Lochore declined to comment.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve had New Zealand cyclists say they no longer ride on the roads because of driver behaviour,\u201d Joshua said.<\/p>\n
Nine cyclists were killed on New Zealand roads in 2024, with 146 seriously injured, according to the most recent Ministry of Transport data.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone\u2019s aware that the drivers here aren\u2019t as courteous to cyclists as they have been in other countries,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s an attitude trend the family have seen predominantly in Western countries, including Australia and their British Isles home.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a Western society, it\u2019s so go go go that as soon as something crops up delaying them by even 30 seconds, they get annoyed,\u201d Joshua said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe instant reaction is to get angry instead of being patient and chill.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhereas in Asia and Turkey, the culture seems to be more laid-back. When a cyclist is in their way, they don\u2019t really care. They just sit behind and overtake when they can.\u201d<\/p>\n
George added that, with the stunning scenery here, he expected people would take more time while they\u2019re travelling, to enjoy it. He said the views always lifted their mood.<\/p>\n
By the end of their journey in May, the pair would have cycled more than 30,000km across 29 countries \u2013 a world-first for a father and son \u2013 raising almost $60,000 for Unicef UK.<\/p>\n
They carried everything needed to survive on Trek 920 bikes, with a total weight of each loaded bike around 45kg.<\/p>\n
The pair were inspired by a high school presentation on cycling by Liam Garner, who cycled from Alaska to Argentina at just 17 years old in 2021. As complete novices, they biked from more than 6000km across the USA. Wanting to see more of the world and continue adventuring together, they set off to circumnavigate the world in March last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we were tired of cycling after the first day,\u201d George laughed.<\/p>\n
Despite the hairy overtake, and pesky sandflies, Joshua and George said New Zealand showcased some of \u201cthe most spectacular views of the trip\u201d.<\/p>\n
Biking between 90 and 125km a day, the duo reached Auckland on February 12 for their flight to Argentina \u2013 their next leg.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur bodies are a little achy, especially after the climbing through the Andes but they are still holding up and we only have 5000km more to go,\u201d Joshua said.<\/p>\n
– RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Joshua caught up to the car at traffic lights and asked the occupants to be more careful. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":515234,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[569],"tags":[197486,36577,3204,64,63,36394,784,48974,239565,34827,257681,1697,69408,36021,85,320,1720],"class_list":["post-515233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-aggressive","tag-are","tag-around","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-biking","tag-cycling","tag-drivers","tag-duo","tag-most","tag-mythen","tag-nz","tag-samantha","tag-say","tag-sports","tag-the","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=515233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/515234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=515233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=515233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=515233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}