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AA Directions Autumn 2012

  • Funky Towns - Oamaru

    Walk the cobbled streets of Oamaru's heritage precinct, and there's a good chance of spotting a fugitive sky pirate, or a small girl with a case of deadly ray guns…

  • Island Show

    The dancers go through their last-minute routines – make-up is applied and adjustments made to dazzling raffia costumes while the scent of frangipani and tiare flowers fills the humid night air.

  • Green Machines

    Oil powers our cars, buses, ships, trains and planes, and with good reason: oil-based liquid fuels are versatile, convenient, and were, for a long time, cheap. But no more.

Funky Towns - Oamaru

Oamaru is known as the Steampunk capital of the world

Beetlemania

Emslie White and her 1969 VW convertible

Island Show

Peter James Quinn discovers roads and rituals in the Cook Islands

Haunted Country

Win a copy of Grant Sheehan's stunning new photography book

Funky Towns - Napier

Napier: New Zealand's Art Deco capital

Q&A

We talk to Dr Mike Shepherd, a Clinical Director at Starship hospital, about child safety in cars

A Good Drop

Peter King studied crash reports to understand last year's reduced road toll

Birds of Paradise

Alice Galletly meets some feathered friends on Kapiti Island

Green Machines

Energy consultant Michael Henry explains the local biofuel scene

  • Funky Towns - Napier

    Fur stoles and cloche hats may not be standard wardrobe items for the average Kiwi woman - unless, perhaps, they live in Napier…

  • Road Trip - Blenheim

    It doesn't matter that the rain is whipping my face furiously. I'm determined to stand on the deck and feel the wind in my hair…

  • Crash and Learn

    Kathryn Webster watches a car go through its ANCAP safety-rating process.

News Bites

  • Cities are built to trade, but is the way we trade around the city making the best use of road space?

    Read more

  • We received lots of great entries for our summer photography competition. Take a look at our online gallery.

    View the gallery

  • The safest car is the one with the most airbags, right? Well, not necessarily.

    Read Crash and Learn

  • My boyfriend Finn and I had left Wellington in the morning. We have a rental car booked for three days, and a map of the South Island with a route scribbled in biro. Our plans are as rough as the weather, but neither concerns us one bit.”

    Read more

    • Have we been given enough information about the give way rule change?