Ask Phoebe: Go south first to go north from airport

Queenstown Road off Ramp on the South Western Motorway. Photo / Richard Robinson

You have helped people wanting to get from Auckland Airport to State Highway 16 - so now, please which is the quickest way to the Northern Motorway, to go north from the airport? You leave the airport and the sign says Auckland and you end up at Mt Albert or somewhere out west.

Queenstown Rd doesn't say anything about heading north and when you do use it you battle heavy traffic through Pah Rd and Manukau Rd and queues waiting to merge at Gillies Ave before getting on to the motorway. Is there an easier and quicker way to get on to State Highway 1 to head north?

Why isn't there a sign somewhere saying Northern Motorway?

Decima Severinsen, Whangarei.

If you are really keen to avoid arterial roads, head south from the airport on SH20 until it meets the Southern Motorway at Manukau, then head north and take the Northern Motorway offramp as you near the CBD.

If you are a little more adventurous, the same route as that given for reaching SH16 applies. When you reach the interchange for SH16 at Pt Chevalier, head towards the city and take the Northern Motorway offramp to SH1 north. In case you have mislaid the instructions on how to get to Pt Chevalier, here they are again. Follow SH20 to the Sandringham Rd exit (at Maioro St), go down Sandringham and turn left into Mt Albert Rd. Continue along here
as it becomes Carrington Rd, and then left into Great North Rd. This will lead you to the Pt Chevalier onramp to SH16 citybound.

A suggested alternative is to take the Sandringham Rd exit from SH20, turn left into Stoddard Rd, carry on to Richardson Rd, cross New North Rd into Woodward Rd and thence to Carrington Rd. Yet another suggestion is to travel along Maioro St, turn right into New Windsor Rd, right again into Blockhouse Bay Rd, right into Great North Rd and thence to the Pt Chevalier citybound onramp to SH16.

I have always believed that parking a motor vehicle on a grass verge is illegal. Auckland Transport tells me that so long as the vehicle does not cause an obstruction to pedestrians or other vehicles and that it is parked at least 1m from a driveway, parking on a grass verge is lawful.

Please tell me - can I or can I not park on a grass verge? Murray Reed, Te Atatu South.

Auckland Transport is still in the throes of co-ordinating all the traffic regulations that applied in the former seven council regions. One Auckland City Council bylaw which came into force in 2009, it states "no person may stop, stand or park a vehicle on any kerb, lawn, garden, or other cultivation adjacent to, or forming part of the road..." So that would be a no. I could not find a similar restriction in the former Waitakere City Council bylaws, but there
may be one.

The Road Code says you must not park or stop your vehicle on the road, if you can park the vehicle off the road without damaging grass or gardens. It adds that a controlling authority may have a bylaw and/or signs prohibiting parking on a grass verge.

It does seem likely that if you park on a grass verge, you are risking a fine.