KEY POINTS:
You thought getting out of town for Easter was bad? Transport authorities are warning you should brace yourself for the return trip tomorrow.
Inspector Carey Griffiths, acting road policing manager, said drivers should leave early and expect heavy delays, particularly in the upper North Island.
Long delays for traffic heading out of Auckland and Wellington on Thursday and Friday helped keep the road toll down to three by yesterday - two fewer than the same time last year.
In the worst accident, a 23-year-old English backpacker was killed in a collision between a campervan and a Hilux Surf towing a boat on the outskirts of Blenheim on Friday morning. Three others were critically injured. Later that day, a 22-year-old Pukekohe man died when his motorbike went into a ditch near the South Auckland township.
Also that afternoon, a 22-year-old man was found dead in a car that had hit a tree in Greytown, Wairarapa.
"I try not to drive anywhere when a public holiday starts and finishes." said Griffiths. "It always surprises me that so many people try to go at the same time, when they know there's going to be congestion."
He said motorists preparing for the long haul home should pack food, drinks and games for children "so you haven't got the distraction of tired, hungry, grumpy kids".
Trouble spots include the Kopu Bridge near Thames, where traffic can back up for kilometres.
Queues for Kopu Bridge on SH25 stretched to 4.5km on Thursday evening as holidaymakers headed to the Coromandel Peninsula. Aucklanders Shirley and Hugh Shields and their grandson McKenna waited half an hour to cross the one-way bridge, which is controlled by traffic lights.
Shirley Shields said they thought there must have been an accident, but then realised it was just the sheer volume of traffic.
Local councils have been calling for a new two-lane bridge to replace the existing 50-year-old one for years. A 2005 Land Transport New Zealand study calculated a new bridge would save up to $92 million in delay costs.
John Hannah of Transit New Zealand yesterday confirmed construction of the new bridge was scheduled to begin in five years.
The problem spot for Wellingtonians heading north was the SH1 stretch between Paraparaumu and Waikanae. This normally takes about 10 minutes, but police say between 1pm and 3pm on Thursday and Friday, it took up to an hour.
Drivers heading north out of Auckland also took their chances this weekend. Peter Stewart of Browns Bay said the traffic north of Orewa yesterday morning was the heaviest he'd seen it in 10 years.
His trip to Goat Island Camping Ground, which normally takes just over one hour, took 2 1/2 hours.
"We came across it just before Warkworth near a cafe, so we decided we'd stop and have a coffee there and it would get better, but it got worse."
It will be at least two years before the Northern Motorway extension from Silverdale to Puhoi is completed.
Meanwhile, shortly before 4pm yesterday, a truck rolled in the Karangahake Gorge on SH26. Police diverted traffic through Whangamata, Thames and Tauranga.
