Buses

I love buses. In a city like Auckland or DC, there's no more enjoyable way to get around. Buses get you to your destination in relative comfort while allowing you to see the sights and learn your way around, plus they're a great opportunity to people watch. On a bus in Auckland, any of the following could happen to you:

--You may experience the bus driver in the middle of a route pulling over to a stop, shutting off the bus, and annoucing to the passengers "10 minutes [sic] break!"

--Your seatmate may be a spry 90-year-old woman on her way to the gym.

--You may see a yellow Hummer stretch limo parked on the side of Customs St., with a photographer standing in the middle of the road, tripod extended and ready to go. Then, a chauffeur may open the door of the limo. Two beautiful women, dressed to the nines, might emerge, followed by a Vinny Chase-celebrity type guy wearing sunglasses (even though it is nighttime) and hip jeans. The celebrity-esque figure could then, conceivably, cross two lanes of active traffic, waving to no one but the camera, before walking back to the limo and redoing the scene three or four times.

These are all just hypothetical possibilities, of course.

While buses are a great way to get around here, they are certainly not easy to figure out. There are hundreds of bus lines in Auckland, many of which share a good portion of their route. However, unlike DC, where I know that a N2, N3, N4, or N6 bus will somehow get me from Friendship Heights to Farragut Square, even the buses with similar routes here do not share common destinations. That is, there may be a dozen different bus lines that go between Symonds St. and Mt. Eden, but they all have different numbers and different destinations listed on the top of the bus. It doesn't help that many of the place names here are based in the Maori language. It's not easy to remember the difference between Papakure, Papatoetoe, and Te Papapa, especially when you have to make a split decision whether to board a bus or not.

Adding to the confusion is the fact that there are many different bus operators in Auckland. There are the purple Metrolink buses, the gray Waka Pacific buses, green Go West! buses, beige Howick & Eastern buses, green Link buses, and supposedly two more companies called Northstar and Ritchie's whose buses I've never seen.

Fortunately, all of the buses have the same fare structure. A standard bus ride is divided into "stages" based on the distance you travel. The longer you travel, the more stages and the more you pay. When you get on the bus, you tell the driver how many stages you're going, and place your money into a little tray. The driver gives you back your change, and a little receipt ribbon prints out that you take as evidence of your fare. One stage is NZD$1.70 (US$1.20) on all of the buses, and if your trip is just within the city center, you only pay NZD$0.50 (US$0.35).

As a tertiary student, I'm entitled to a generous 40% discount on fares as long as I buy my rides in advance (in groups of 10 rides for NZD$10) and use my Go Rider card. Go Rider is a plastic card with a dangerously exposed RFID computer chip that plugs into a little reader on the farebox. The driver then prints out your receipt, and one ride is deducted from your tally. I've been told that the Go Rider works on all the buses except Howick & Eastern, but I haven't tried it on all of the others besides Metrolink.

As a final nice touch, many bus stops are equipped with electronic signs that tell you when the next bus is due to arrive, with mediocre accuracy. It's better than having to call a number for this information like I do in DC--provided, of course, that you know what your destination is.

I also enjoy some of the bus stop ads. Why not try Sanitarium Brand Coconut Crunch Cluster Crisp? It's the Tasty New Mix of Interesting Bits! In the background is a female robot in a hoop skirt doing the macarena (I've also seen the TV version of this ad, which is equally disturbing).

And speaking of buses, I just got an amazing deal on some bus travel during my mid-semester break. By amazing I mean the "~40 hours of bus travel over 8 segments for NZD$50" kind of amazing. Looks like I'll be heading down to the South Island for two weeks in September. Details to follow.