P15

P15

We reached Rotourua  city in New Zealand by rented car after driving around 300 kms from airport.  My son was in the driving seat and I was sitting next to him. Though i was sitting next to him, I was of no use as a navigator, but the inbuilt google map of the car was of immense help to us.

As we reached the city, we decided to have  lunch. My Son and Daughter in law with their expertise  located an Indian restaurant by googling. But parking is a serious issue in New Zealand and after 2-3 rounds around the hotel, located a local roadside  parking place. We saw the Parking board with the symbol P15. Though I did not understand the number on the board, I presumed that  it was only some serial number.

When we returned to the car, we saw a penalty slip  from police on the car  for  20 Dollars. The fine was imposed for parking beyond 15 minutes which was indicated as P15 on the board. In this country  P15, P30 and P45 indicates the free parking time. Interestingly no  policeman was visible.  The overtime parking was detected  through the  motion sensors.

We  thought the penalty could be paid while handing over the car but that office had no intimation about the fine.  We were  then informed that  to pay the fine through the internet. We thought we will pay after we return to India.

We returned to India and during the travel we lost the ticket somewhere. Without ticket number , it is not possible to pay the fine. I asked  my son, should we pay ?, Because, in all possibility we may not go to that country again. 

But then he said it is very much essential to pay  otherwise they can block us renting a car in any   other country  by blacklisting.  Then with lot of  efforts and help from rotourua police through mail,  we could get the details and pay the fine.