KEY POINTS:
As if going back to work after the break wasn't enough to put motorists in a bad mood yesterday, homeward-bound holiday makers faced lengthy traffic delays over much of the North Island.
Police advised patience as they returned to Auckland from the north. As bad weather closed in, traffic was at a standstill between Wellsford and Te Hana.
The Kopu bridge south of Thames, notorious for traffic hold-ups, was another bad spot for jams as travellers left the Coromandel Peninsula's holiday hotspots.
Delays of up to an hour were reported at the one-lane bridge, where the coincidence of Thames Race Day and the end of the holidays was expected to produce the heaviest traffic of the year.
Drivers' tempers were also frayed by slow traffic around Taupo in the central North Island.
Further south, Wellingtonians returning to the capital were held up on State Highway 1 from Levin to Porirua.
Traffic backed-up on SH1 after a two-car crash occurred on Waiwera Hill.
Senior Sergeant Tony Edwards of Auckland police communications said the narrowed road made driving conditions slow.
The southbound traffic, travelling slowly from the Pohuehue Viaduct south to Waiwera, was delayed for about an hour.
