OPINION: Wow! It's a word I've uttered more than a few times over the past two weeks and sometimes the language used has been much stronger.

Roading tripping around the South Island over the silly season has been an eye-opening experience and at times, nothing short of dangerous. When we were handed the keys to our rental car in Nelson, the gentleman passing them to me said, "good luck". 

At the time our three excited daughters were leaping about as we loaded our bags into the boot. We drove off wondering whether he was questioning our sanity with three boisterous children in tow.

Two weeks on, I hold quite a different view on his comment. As the region-specific road safety campaign emblazoned on billboards from Otago to Southland and the West Coast states; Our roads are different… 

It started just out of Nelson heading to Christchurch entering the Lewis Pass. Mr Apex in his SUV struggled to stay to the left, or in his lane. Lurching between 50kmh and 100kmh he weaved from slipping off the roadside onto the verge, raising clouds of dust, to swaying over the centre line.

Just outside of Hanmer Springs there was an Ezi rental pootling along the highway at between 60kmh and 70kmh, the double yellow lines indicating no passing and a huge line of traffic queuing up behind them.

Between Oamaru and Christchurch there were two Maui Campervans travelling in convoy. They trundled along between 80km h and 90kmh and then, like many drivers, New Zealander or not, they sped up to at least 110kmh on the passing lanes.

We saw near misses at roundabouts and give ways, where it was clear the drivers had no idea who was supposed to go first, and on at least two other occasions we watched rental cars weave over the centre line, cutting corners and appearing to struggle to stay left as they rounded curving bends in the region's roads.

• Car caught on camera driving on the wrong side of the road towards oncoming traffic
• Frightened tourists are bringing a plague of accidents and deaths to Queenstown roads
• Dam there be some idots on our roads
• Shocking overtake by work van caught on camera

Nearer to home, last summer there was the Wicked Camper stopped in the middle of the road halfway down the Whangapoua Hill. The driver was taking a selfie out the window.

Then there was the French driver in his Europcar, driving along on one of the tyre rims just outside Coromandel. When he finally pulled over and I stopped to help, he told me his English wasn't good so he thought he could make it the 40 plus kilometres to Whitianga without changing the tyre. 

As I spoke to the company that he had asked me to call, the representative chuckled and said, "ah yes, this is only the start of the holiday season, we've seen far worse than that".

Then this week in the Waikato there was American doctor, Subodh Mallik, sentenced on five counts of dangerous driving causing injury. The court was told he was off to Waikato Hospital to apologise to the victims of the head on collision he caused on SH27 when he was on the wrong side of the road.

The truth is, perhaps it should be us apologising to him for not having some more stringent checks and balances in place to make sure he could operate safely on our highways.

We are continually told overseas drivers are not a problem on New Zealand roads. The well-worn statistic tells us overseas drivers are involved in around just six percent of fatal or serious injury crashes on New Zealand roads and with a road toll that continues to climb, reaching 353 last year, perhaps foreign drivers really are the least of our worries.

But Ministry of Transport figures show, in the West Coast, that figure sits at 43 per cent between 2013 and 2017. In Queenstown, 33 per cent of road crashes during that time were caused by foreign drivers. In Southland, the figure is 23 per cent.

Yet it's an issue no one seems willing to acknowledge or address. Perhaps it's for fear of offending our international tourists who bring us about $17 billion each year. But consider the study of 226 foreign drivers in Queenstown last year. Only 3 per cent passed a New Zealand theory test and more tellingly 50 per cent admitted they weren't confident driving on New Zealand roads.

And who can blame them. The double whammy for these international tourists is they are also sharing the road with some of the most aggressive drivers in the world. New Zealanders are terrible on the roads. We race at traffic lights and battle each other on the passing lanes and when we're pulled up for our behaviour, we cry about the Government revenue gathering, or the state of our roads. We also don't accept our behaviour can kill.

And while there is plenty of information offered on the NZ Transport Agency's website for overseas drivers, when we searched through our vehicle for any kind of tangible information about driving on New Zealand roads all we found was a small folding brochure.

And that's how it currently stands. If you hold a valid driver's license, you're good to go. If it's not in English, it just needs to be translated. There are no additional requirements for overseas drivers using our roads which are so vastly different to those of their home countries.

New Zealand's roads are different. They are often winding, single-lane routes that lack median barriers and in many places are still unsealed.

Our roads are different. We don't have the autobahn or the large motorways and highways of Europe or America. And our roads are certainly different to many in Asia where chaos somehow beautifully reigns, as all manner of vehicle from tuk-tuk to bus, car and bike mingle together.

Our roads are different and the distance between tourist centres and an under-developed public transport system means hiring a car and driving, as hair raising as it may be, is a far more attractive option for our international visitors.

So, yes, our roads are different, but other than stating the obvious for our international tourists visiting New Zealand, what are we doing about it? 

Our roads are different and because of that don't we owe them a little more than just stuffing a brochure in the glovebox, handing them the keys and wishing them good luck?