US tourist in NZ who makes us all look bad

[Anonymous]

"Just before 10pm, he was driving his rented Toyota north on the Shenandoah Highway, State Highway 65, near Murchison. The area of rural highway has a 100-kilometre-per-hour speed limit, has no lighting and frequent corners."

Ah, he thought he was on Skyline drive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rude, loud, and stupid Americans. What else’s new?

For what it is worth, Americans do not have a monopoly on poor tourist behaviour. Chinese tourists are usually both loud and disrespectful when visiting sacred sites in the UK. The loudest tourists I have ever heard on the Tube were Italian. And so on…

This. The “dumb/obnoxious American” bit is a little tired. Anything an American does/did has been done by tourists from other countries. As PP said, we don’t have a monopoly on boorish behavior. In fact, we may have to try harder if we want to be at the top- see last year’s UK tourist defacing Rome Colosseum with graffiti.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"Just before 10pm, he was driving his rented Toyota north on the Shenandoah Highway, State Highway 65, near Murchison. The area of rural highway has a 100-kilometre-per-hour speed limit, has no lighting and frequent corners."

Ah, he thought he was on Skyline drive.

I driven that stretch. The road isn't much different than Skyline drive despite being called a highway - it's windy and narrow. There are even one lane bridges. We're not talking about a road like I-95 here -it's pretty challenging to drive in rural areas in NZ.

I'm curious why a tourist would be driving at 10pm in that area, because frankly, it's a not very exciting area - mainly rural, and primarily famous as the site of a major earthquake in the 1960s. Murchison has about 600 residents.

Now that I live in Virginia, it's amusing that there is a river (creek) and range called the Shenandoahs in the South Island of NZ. From what I can tell, the name was given to the area during gold mining days in the 1860s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rude, loud, and stupid Americans. What else’s new?

For what it is worth, Americans do not have a monopoly on poor tourist behaviour. Chinese tourists are usually both loud and disrespectful when visiting sacred sites in the UK. The loudest tourists I have ever heard on the Tube were Italian. And so on…

Americans do have a terrible reputation as tourists. And yes, so do Chinese and others. We understand that. What makes this story interesting is that the offender is a local. I presume that is why OP posted it ---- because we all know a DC douchebag like this

"The finance company manager in Washington D.C., Brett Douglas Reck, appeared in the Nelson District Court this morning, delaying his planned return flight to the US to admit a charge of dangerous driving in relation to Friday night’s crash."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Rude, loud, and stupid Americans. What else’s new?

Not all Americans are rude, loud or stupid.

[Anonymous]

Just returned from NZ after a two week vacation. It is hard to drive on the other side. MY DH despite his best efforts did end up driving on the wrong side, but quickly adjusted after a couple of honks. Thankfully no issues.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just returned from NZ after a two week vacation. It is hard to drive on the other side. MY DH despite his best efforts did end up driving on the wrong side, but quickly adjusted after a couple of honks. Thankfully no issues.

If you have this much issue driving on the "other side of the road", you should not be doing it.
We've driven in Aus, South Africa, and UK with no issues and never driving on the wrong side "despite our best efforts". What kind of idiotic hazard are you that you get on the road and think, "well, I'll do my best but no promises". THIS is the American a-hole attitude that we're all taking about it. Follow the rules, or hire a driver if you cannot

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are vacationing in NZ, and this story involving a guy from home is all over the local news, and now locals also mention it to us when reminding us to drive on the left. I really wish Americans would try harder to avoid bad press abroad that affects other US visitors!

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/us-tourist-brett-reck-hit-car-on-highway-near-nelson-after-driving-on-wrong-side-of-road-for-10-minutes/ALUMKN4ZAFHCFG4DPCGZPZB554/

One person does not represent the whole group of people

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just returned from NZ after a two week vacation. It is hard to drive on the other side. MY DH despite his best efforts did end up driving on the wrong side, but quickly adjusted after a couple of honks. Thankfully no issues.

Disagree. I've driven in NZ, Aus, UK, Japan, and India. Your steering wheel is on the other side of the car, that's kind of a big clue. The ONLY time it was a bit tricky was in St John/St Thomas, when the cars are US cars but you still drive on the left.

Thirty years of it and nobody has ever had to honk at me for being on the wrong side.

[Anonymous]

While tourists behave badly all the time, we seem to focus on just a few.

In 1995 we took a boat to Rainbow Bridge on Lake Powell, Arizona. There were two big boats, and we were told repeatedly in English before arrival not to touch anything, not to take anything, not to write our names on the rocks. $10, 000 fine. We understood that.

Two elderly German women from the other boat did not understand that and carved their initials into the rocks. Our boat got to leave while their boat had to wait for the police to come and deal with them.

This seems little different to the guy at the Coliseum who made news around the world. No journalists on our boat that day I guess.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just returned from NZ after a two week vacation. It is hard to drive on the other side. MY DH despite his best efforts did end up driving on the wrong side, but quickly adjusted after a couple of honks. Thankfully no issues.

Disagree. I've driven in NZ, Aus, UK, Japan, and India. Your steering wheel is on the other side of the car, that's kind of a big clue. The ONLY time it was a bit tricky was in St John/St Thomas, when the cars are US cars but you still drive on the left.

Thirty years of it and nobody has ever had to honk at me for being on the wrong side.

I've lived in right hand drive and left hand drive countries. It does take concentration to adjust back and forth. It helps when you are following another car or when driving on a major highway.

My family are always laughing at me when I go home and I try to get in the driver's seat when I'm a front passenger.

Frankly, I wish the world had got together in 1905 and decided on one side or the other.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rude, loud, and stupid Americans. What else’s new?

For what it is worth, Americans do not have a monopoly on poor tourist behaviour. Chinese tourists are usually both loud and disrespectful when visiting sacred sites in the UK. The loudest tourists I have ever heard on the Tube were Italian. And so on…

Americans do have a terrible reputation as tourists. And yes, so do Chinese and others. We understand that. What makes this story interesting is that the offender is a local. I presume that is why OP posted it ---- because we all know a DC douchebag like this

"The finance company manager in Washington D.C., Brett Douglas Reck, appeared in the Nelson District Court this morning, delaying his planned return flight to the US to admit a charge of dangerous driving in relation to Friday night’s crash."

As an experienced traveller and a long term expat, it's Americans who obsess the most about bad American tourists. The concept of Europeans/Asians/whatever muttering about horrible American tourists lives more in the mind of certain Americans than in reality. Trust me when I say bad tourists come in all form and shape. Americans are pretty decent tourists and typically highly preferred for generosity and sociability. A lot of has to do with that it's mainly affluent Americans who travel and you've clearly never encountered working class European tourists or Australian redneck tourists or the Chinese tourist hordes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rude, loud, and stupid Americans. What else’s new?

For what it is worth, Americans do not have a monopoly on poor tourist behaviour. Chinese tourists are usually both loud and disrespectful when visiting sacred sites in the UK. The loudest tourists I have ever heard on the Tube were Italian. And so on…

Americans do have a terrible reputation as tourists. And yes, so do Chinese and others. We understand that. What makes this story interesting is that the offender is a local. I presume that is why OP posted it ---- because we all know a DC douchebag like this

"The finance company manager in Washington D.C., Brett Douglas Reck, appeared in the Nelson District Court this morning, delaying his planned return flight to the US to admit a charge of dangerous driving in relation to Friday night’s crash."

As an experienced traveller and a long term expat, it's Americans who obsess the most about bad American tourists. The concept of Europeans/Asians/whatever muttering about horrible American tourists lives more in the mind of certain Americans than in reality. Trust me when I say bad tourists come in all form and shape. Americans are pretty decent tourists and typically highly preferred for generosity and sociability. A lot of has to do with that it's mainly affluent Americans who travel and you've clearly never encountered working class European tourists or Australian redneck tourists or the Chinese tourist hordes.

Did you miss the point or just not read? We all know there are multiple groups to battle it out for worst tourist. Not the point. The story is of not to this crowd bc he’s a Capitol One employee living in Great Falls. Got it? Good

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Rude, loud, and stupid Americans. What else’s new?

For what it is worth, Americans do not have a monopoly on poor tourist behaviour. Chinese tourists are usually both loud and disrespectful when visiting sacred sites in the UK. The loudest tourists I have ever heard on the Tube were Italian. And so on…

Americans do have a terrible reputation as tourists. And yes, so do Chinese and others. We understand that. What makes this story interesting is that the offender is a local. I presume that is why OP posted it ---- because we all know a DC douchebag like this

"The finance company manager in Washington D.C., Brett Douglas Reck, appeared in the Nelson District Court this morning, delaying his planned return flight to the US to admit a charge of dangerous driving in relation to Friday night’s crash."

As an experienced traveller and a long term expat, it's Americans who obsess the most about bad American tourists. The concept of Europeans/Asians/whatever muttering about horrible American tourists lives more in the mind of certain Americans than in reality. Trust me when I say bad tourists come in all form and shape. Americans are pretty decent tourists and typically highly preferred for generosity and sociability. A lot of has to do with that it's mainly affluent Americans who travel and you've clearly never encountered working class European tourists or Australian redneck tourists or the Chinese tourist hordes.

Did you miss the point or just not read? We all know there are multiple groups to battle it out for worst tourist. Not the point. The story is of not to this crowd bc he’s a Capitol One employee living in Great Falls. Got it? Good

OP here. +1. That’s why it’s of interest to this board. Also, he was not behaving badly, but committed a crime. Will be interesting to see what the toxicology report says. If I see an update in the local news, I will post it here.

[Anonymous]

Here is a mainly NZ take on this guy’s actions. They are less forgiving than DCUM.

https://www.reddit.com/r/newzealand/comments/196yfqu/us_tourist_brett_reck_hit_car_on_highway_near/