before i arrived in NZ, i was warned that i needed a car as the public transportation here was "shit." like most warnings i've received in my life, however, i casually ignored this assuming i'd be able to figure it out. this time i should have listened.
granted, i've been accustomed to the fantastically convenient public transportation of new york city, but i still think that there is room to complain even if this weren't the case. there are regularly running buses in the city that have stops at most of the major areas, however, the trouble is figuring out which bus to take and from where. instead of the "downtown" or "uptown" directional instructions i'm used to, each bus is called "inner" or "outer" and usually has the name of an area of the city on it. sounds easier than it is, as the area that is usually chosen for the bus is one that all bus lines go to, so pretty hard to figure out which direction each bus is going to.
thankfully, they have a website with a journey planner which is supposed to function similar to a hopstop. unfortunately, instead of giving directions on where the bus stop is based on cross streets, the website delivers the bus station number that appears in a tiny corner of the tiny little glass bus shelters. not exactly helpful when the purpose of my being on the website is that i'm not familiar with the bus system.
anyway, all complaints aside, i conquered my fear of public transport and actually managed to master the bus system this past week to meet up with a few friends in mission bay to watch some football (yes, american football!). i had a few minutes while i waited for my friends to pick me up from the bus stop and took a few shots of the beach at mission bay, which hopefully makes up partly for my long-ish tale of public transport woes.
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