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 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 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 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

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

Not all Americans are rude, loud or stupid.

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 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 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.

"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 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…

The badly behaved bachelor party travellers from the UK going to Amsterdam are notorious.

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…

I don’t think a US judge would be so lenient on a tourist committing DUI.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:516,000 yanks visit NZ every year.

This is unfortunate but Kiwis are not going to judge half a million people by this one asshat.

Nothing wrong with hearing 'drive on the left' a few times a day.

OP here. The vast majority of those 500k visitors are cruise passengers who do not drive. I just thought this news item that is trending here in NZ should follow this guy home. He should be able to escape this story by flying home.

Do you know him or something? The vibe of this shaming is so personal. (And yes this dude was wrong duh)

Like we don't have intoxicated drivers driving dangerously here in the States?

Or people who drive on the wrong side. You always see the stories about people getting on the off ramp of the highway and driving.

Anyone know this guy?