One of the first thing you will notice when you visit New Zealand is how clean it is. There is rarely any trash seen on the side of the road and the grass along the roads is usually cut and neatly trimmed.
Today I drove into Stratford to give blood. A couple of kilometers outside of town, there was a fire engine blocking the road and we were waved down a side road as a detour. I mentioned it to the nurse preparing my arm and she said, 'Yeah, we heard the fire trucks and figured it was a pretty bad accident.' It seems she was right and it was a pretty serious crash with three people taken to the hospital, one being taken by helicopter to New Plymouth.
On my way home about an hour or so later, there was absolutely no indication that an accident had even happened.
Most of the time, I appreciate the fact that the roads are kept clean but sometimes I think they should wait a day or two to clean up debris and marks left by car accidents, just as a reminder.
