KEY POINTS:
Motorists fleeing Auckland for holiday hotspots over the long weekend face the usual delays at the usual places while driving to their destinations.
Drivers reported traffic slowing to a crawl yesterday at the northbound bottleneck areas of Orewa and Warkworth while those heading south had travel plans disrupted on the Northwestern Motorway at Western Springs after a man was shot dead following a police chase.
Further south, at the notorious Kopu Bridge, queues were nearly 6km long and traffic delayed for up to an hour as holidaymakers flocked to the Coromandel Peninsula.
Kopu Station Hotel head chef David Perkins said that by midday yesterday motorists had come in to the bar complaining of long waits at the decrepit one-lane bridge.
"People need to be aware it's like driving in rush-hour traffic in Auckland at this time of year," he said.
His advice to motorists travelling to the Coromandel was simple: leave earlier and go through Paeroa.
Waikato road policing manager Inspector Leo Tooman said traffic on roads around Hamilton were particularly heavy. They were likely to come under more pressure with the A1GP in Taupo, the Parachute Festival at Mystery Creek and the Tribal Pride Festival at Hopu Hopu.
