Motorists trail motorhome on wrong side of road for 45 minutes

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A horrified family trailed a campervan for up to 45 minutes as it drove along the wrong side of a major South Island tourist highway.

Those inside the vehicle were left shocked watching the rental motorhome dice with death as it travelled from Curio Bay in the Catlins to Bluff on the Tokanui-Gorge Rd Highway Sunday afternoon.

Kodi Goodman, his partner and two young children were in their car heading back from a trip to a the beach when they spotted the Maui Campervan heading in the same direction but on the right-hand side of the centre line.

A front seat passenger in the car, who did not want to be named, said they followed the vehicle for 45 minutes keeping well behind them fearing there would be carnage if a vehicle came from the opposite direction.

"We stayed well back especially worried that if a car came around a sharp corner there would be a terrible accident and we would have been caught up in it."

Fortunately tragedy was averted with no cars on the road at the time.

She said eventually there was a straight stretch of road with good visibility to safely pass the dangerous vehicle.

"Kodi sped up and yelling out got them on to the right side of the road," she said.

"He had his arm out the window they started indicating as we went past and moved over to the left."

Goodman was left stunned as the couple in their 30s moved over to the left and carried on as if nothing untoward had happened.

The Southland couple were left gobsmacked by the shocking driving.

"It was our first swim of the summer and it could have easily ended so badly," said the mum-of-two.

She said in hindsight she wonders if they should have waved down the vehicle and taken the keys from the ignition but at the time they were shocked and concerned for their own safety.

Tourism Holdings Ltd, which rented the filmed campervan, said the driver had been contacted and "reminded about safe driving in New Zealand, especially staying left," Fairfax reported.

Curio Bay to Bluff is a 104km journey along the Tokanui-Gorge Rd Highway taking just under 1.5 hrs by road.

- NZ Herald