Modes of Transportation

Today's gripping post, brought to you from a rain-battered washhouse in Devonport, is about public transport in Auckland. I am All About Public Transport on this visit - ferries, buses, trains, taxis. (Though not so much of the latter - taxis are expensive in this city of vast distances.) Aucklanders like to complain about the public transport here, mainly to justify driving everywhere and paying huge amounts for parking. And maybe I've just been lucky because of my limited range of required routes. Here are some exciting pictures to persuade you all that public transport in Auckland is nice. For example, this is a bus stop:

And here's the 5:30 PM ferry pulling into Devonport wharf last night.

You can enjoy some delightful views from Mt Albert train station ...

By the way, St Peter's boys, why don't you give up your seats on the train to adults? Ask yourselves: what would Simon Dallow do?

The downtown Britomart station, in the bowels of the glorious old Post Office building, is flash: fountains, ferns, shiny pillars, etc. My pictures of it are rubbish, though. Whenever I take pictures in transport hubs, I worry about getting arrested, so I take the photos in haste to avoid detection. This stems from a trip to Russia c. 1987.

That's enough transport for now. Two of my school friends from Rutherford High (now Rutherford College) came to the reading on Monday night, which was very kind of them. Simon Dallow, by the way, should have attended Rutherford - like me, he's from Te Atatu South. But his cruel parents sent him to St Peter's College instead.

I had a wander through the Rutherford site, and saw various things of interest. Mr. Coughlan, who was once my Social Studies (and later Geography) teacher, is taking a group of students this week to my former intermediate school, Rangeview: the list reads "senior drama, senior dance, singing, Korean drummers and those from the production." There's also the strict instruction: "Full school uniform must be worn." A note to Rutherford students - please take this warning seriously. Once Mr. Coughlan cancelled a class field trip because one person (and one person only - KATHLEEN) had misbehaved in Social Studies that week. We didn't have Korean drummers at Rutherford in those days. We didn't have Chinese Temples visits or Indian dance or water polo then either. Times have changed.

Of course, some things come back around again. The school musical this year is Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. I think this was the school musical in either 1977 or 1978. It starred Ross Girven, who went on to become a real actor. But then we are all high achievers in West Auckland.

Comments

[Dawn]

I enjoyed your comments on Auckland transport because I'm hoping to spend a few days there and the thought of driving myself round in Auckland traffic terrifies me! If you can handle your engagements via public transport then so can I.

[pjkm]

Go to the MAXX web site (http://www.maxx.co.nz/) - it has info on ticket prices, etc, and an excellent journey planner feature. I've been distracting myself by planning my bus route to Westmere this evening ...