A past tauira of Tāmaki Makaurau shares their relatable journey of getting their full license. Siri, play Drivers License by Olivia Rodrigo.
I currently hold my Full License, but was on my restricted license for 4+ years. Before that I was on my "full" learners for ages too.
There have been three pivotal moments that prompted me to get my full license.
police stop
The first was when I drove through a police stop on "no license" so was given the standard warning and 28 days waive notice to go and get my learners.
cost and stigma of the driving test
The second instance was that I couldn't afford the fee to take the practical test. I also heard rumors that it was hard af to pass the test and instructors were intentionally not passing people to make up some sort of quota. So me being me, I was still driving around (illegally).
workplace support
When my job heard I was driving to work on my "full" learners (which is not recommended lol), they asked me to go practice and offered driving lessons and to pay for my restricted license.
Now, from here I should have just got my full license test over and done with. But I was living in Auckland at the time and I did not want to do my test up there so I just put that on the back-burner. My thoughts were that I'll just wait till I get back to Rotorua for a holiday and just take it then.
This took me 5 years to do.
a must for employment (and for mana)
The only reason I have my full license now is because nowadays this is something employers look for and it looks good on my CV. Also at the time I was thinking of going for it, my little sisters were also wanting to do this so me being the older sibling - I just HAD to get it before them.
Thankfully, they have programmes here in Rotorua that allow you to take the test for free with driving lessons included so I did not have to fork out money for this either.
All in all, if it weren't for all those chances given and just pure luck in some cases I probably would still be on my "full learners".
- This piece was submitted anonymously
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