Waka Kotahi said travellers should use its holiday journey planner to check traffic predictions before leaving. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi
The transport agency is warning travellers to expect heavy traffic on highways up and down the country as people head away to their New Year's Eve destinations.
In the North Island, Waka Kotahi said traffic hotspots were likely to include State Highway 1 from Taihape to Waiouru, SH1 between Mt Messenger and Whanganui, and SH5 between Napier and Taupō.
Meanwhile, traffic on the new Peka Peka to Ōtaki Expressway, particularly northbound, was expected to be heaviest on New Year's Day and 2 January.
Down south, traffic was likely to be busy northbound on SH1 near Waipara, north of Christchurch, while SH6 near Queenstown and SH8 east of Wānaka (though Tarras) would be busy all day.
Waka Kotahi said travellers should use its holiday journey planner to check traffic predictions before leaving.
"Every holiday period and long weekend we see large numbers of people heading out of the main centres to popular holiday destinations and this can cause queues and delays," the agency said.
"To help alleviate these problems we recommend planning your travel well in advance and travelling outside the busiest periods. To make this easier for you, we've created an interactive traffic prediction map for holiday periods. The map shows when we expect traffic to be heavy based on travel patterns from previous years."
Holidaymakers should also check routes on the day of travel because predicted peak times could change based on incidents, roadworks, weather and driver behaviour, Waka Kotahi said.