Transportation in New Zealand

The New Zealand State Highway network that provides the backbone infrastructure joining towns together is administered by Transit New Zealand.

Other roads within a town are managed by the local District Council. Other roads may be under the control of the New Zealand Department of Conservation.

Speed limits on the open road are 100 km/h, and throughout residential areas it is 50 km/h. Another common speed limit is 70 km/h, which is used as an intermediate on narrow roads. Speeds are often reduced to 30 km/h beside roadworks.

Table of contents

1 Highways
2 Railways
3 Waterways
4 Pipelines
5 Ports and harbours
6 Merchant marine
7 Airports

7.1 Airports - with paved runways
7.2 Airports - with unpaved runways
7.3 Heliports

8 Reference
9 See Also

Highways

(see New Zealand State Highway network)
total: 92,200 km
paved: 53,568 km (including at least 144 km of expressways)
unpaved: 38,632 km (1996 est.)

Railways

There is a total of 3,898 km of railway line in New Zealand, all of it narrow gauge (1.067 m). Of this, 506 km is electrified, (from 2002 data.) Trains are handled by Tranz Rail.

The main trunk line goes from...

Wellington has a commuter train service with trains running from Wellington city to Upper Hutt, Johnsonville, Melling, and Paraparaumu. There is also a daily train to Masterton.

Waterways

1,609 km; of little importance to transportation.

?is Cook Strait a waterway? that's important.

Pipelines

Petroleum products 160 km; natural gas 1,000 km; liquified petroleum gas (LPG) 150 km.

Ports and harbours

Container Ports: Auckland, Wellington, Lyttelton (Christchurch), Port Chalmers (Dunedin)
Other Ports: Whangarei, Devonport (Auckland), Tauranga, Gisborne, Napier, New Plymouth, Wanganui, Nelson, Picton, Westport, Greymouth, Timaru, Bluff.
Harbours: Akaroa, Half Moon Bay (Stewart Island), Milford Sound.
Fresh Water: Rotorua (Lake Rotorua), Taupo (Lake Taupo), Queenstown and Kingston (Lake Wakatipu), Te Anau and Manapouri (Lake Manapouri)

Merchant marine

total: 9 ships (1,000 GRT or over) totaling 69,685 GRT/106,627 DWT
ships by type: bulk 3, cargo 2, container 1, petroleum tanker 2, roll-on/roll-off 1 (2002 est.)

Airports

There are 113 airports in New Zealand (2002 est.). The main international airport is Auckland Airport, which handled about 9.4 million passengers in the year to June 30, 2003 [1]). Christchurch Airport and Wellington Airport each handle about 4 million passengers per year.

Reference

Much of the material in this article comes from the CIA World Factbook, 2003 edition.