GPS vs Common Sense: Round 3

I've said it before and I'll say it again-- there is only a fixed amount of intelligence in the world and as the population grows, there's less to go around!

Getting from Christchurch to Nelson in four hours was "no trouble", Australian tourists Anthony Hoiberg and Clarinda Mojar had been told. The couple were yesterday resting after their hired car satellite navigation system took them on a 10-hour detour over one of the South Island's roughest passes, described as "a shingle goat track".

It took them seven hours travelling at a maximum speed of 15kmh, and stopping to open gates, to get from Hanmer Springs to the Rainbow Station near St Arnaud, where they encountered a locked gate and waited more than an hour for someone to open it.

"He couldn't believe we did it in a car. His jaw dropped," Hoiberg said of the worker who found them. Mark Watson, of the New Zealand Alpine Club, said: "It's not the sort of road you'd like to take a normal car on." Rainbow Station manager David McEwen said the road could best be described as "a shingle goat track". "To say they're following their GPS quite frankly doesn't wash with me. They've gone past signs that said `Road Closed' that are 6ft high and 3ft wide and are illuminated."

The couple said they were taking to the road again today, returning to Christchurch for their flight home.

via Fairfax New Zealand Limited

Score at the end of round 3: GPS 3, Common Sense 0