The Glenfield testing site serves most of Auckland's North Shore, and the roads around it are a fair sample of North Shore driving: busy arterials feeding the motorway, hilly residential streets, and a lot of roundabouts. Waka Kotahi doesn't publish test routes and the testing officer chooses on the day, but the road network the test is drawn from is fixed — and SteerClear's practice routes from Glenfield show which parts of it matter most.
What the Glenfield practice routes have in common
SteerClear has 13 practice routes that start and finish at Glenfield. A typical one covers about 11.3 km in 30 minutes — close to the driving portion of the restricted test — and takes in around 3 roundabouts. Almost the entire distance is at 50 km/h: this is an urban test with no open-road section.
Roads that come up most
- Sunnybrae Road — on 13 of 13 routes
- Archers Road — on 13 of 13 routes
- Wairau Road — on 10 of 13 routes
- Glenfield Road — on 9 of 13 routes
- Coronation Road — on 8 of 13 routes
- Chartwell Avenue — on 5 of 13 routes
What each road asks of you
Sunnybrae Road and Archers Road are on every route. They are the first and last minutes of your test, so learn their junctions, lane markings and the traffic at your test time until nothing on them surprises you. Wairau Road is the big one — a wide, busy arterial with multi-lane roundabouts and traffic heading for the motorway; lane choice on the approach to each roundabout decides everything, and the testing officer is watching for a mirror check before every signal. Glenfield Road and Coronation Road bring hills: expect hill starts, junctions on a gradient and parked cars narrowing the road.
Roundabouts
At around 3 per route, roundabouts are the most repeated situation here. The faults that cost marks are consistent — wrong lane on approach, looking right too late, stopping at a clear give-way line, and no left signal before the exit. Drive enough of them that the routine runs without thought: mirrors, signal, position, speed, look.
Restricted versus full licence
The restricted test is the longer drive and includes a hazard-detection component where you call out hazards as you see them; the full licence test is shorter and focused on your judgement in traffic. Both are scored on the same underlying skills, and both are drawn from the same roads above. SteerClear's NZ routes cover both test types.
How the test runs at Glenfield
Restricted and full licence tests are run by the testing agent at the site rather than by Waka Kotahi directly. Arrive early with your current licence and a car that has a valid warrant of fitness and registration; the testing officer checks lights, indicators and brakes before you leave the car park. The restricted test is the longer of the two and includes hazard detection, where you say what you see as you drive — practise saying it aloud with your supervisor, because staying silent under pressure costs marks that have nothing to do with your driving. The full licence test is shorter and weighted towards judgement in traffic: gap selection, following distance and how you handle the unexpected.
The faults that cost most here
On the North Shore's roundabouts the recurring faults are approach-lane errors and missing the left signal on exit. On Wairau Road it is late mirror checks before a lane change. On the hills it is rolling back at a junction. And everywhere it is speed: the whole area is 50 km/h, and 55 in a 50 is a critical error under the NZ marking scheme. Practise until 50 feels slow enough to hold without watching the speedometer.
A practice plan for the final two weeks
- Drive Sunnybrae Road and Archers Road in both directions until they are routine.
- Do a Wairau Road session at your test time of day: every roundabout, every exit.
- Practise hill starts on Glenfield Road and Coronation Road with a car parked close in front.
- Run two or three full-length drives with your supervisor giving directions only.
- Finish with a scored mock test and look at where marks cluster.
Practise the Glenfield roads
Our Glenfield (North Shore) centre page lists the roads that come up most and the speed-limit mix, and SteerClear scores every practice drive live — speed, braking, cornering, lane position and observation — so a repeated hesitation at one roundabout shows up as a pattern before test day. For the bigger picture, see how driving test routes work in New Zealand and what the test involves.