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The last 15 hours were the worst time I have spent in New Zealand so far.
Within that time I have spent 4,5h standing on bus stops or traveling on the bus. Yesterday I have missed the last “proper” bus to the city. “No worries!” I thought… I got on www.maxx.co.nz, printed a new trip plan and took off for a bus stop recomended by the route planner - 0,5 km away. After half an hour, it was obvious that the bus listed by route planner will not come and it started to rain. After another 20 minutes it was obvious that the second bus is not coming as well and the rain got more serious. 10 minutes later some other bus came and I decided to take just to get anywhere closer to civilisation. Luckily it turned out to go to the city where I hoped to catch another bus home. So, altogether after 2,5 hours I got home. Cold and soaking wet. Thank You Richties (the buses that didn’t come). Nevertheless, I was quite happy to be finally home. It just turned out to be the beginning of fun.
I went to sleep around 22.30. The sound that woke me up was just incredible. I have never heard such a noise before - or it was just an effect of the fire alarm going of 3m from You in the middle of the night. What the fuck? Should I get out because the house is on fire? I got out to see what is going on and it turned out that the alarm just went off because of some problems with the installation. So, the probem with the installation didn’t solved itself. We simply had the alarm going off a few times more until 3 or 4am. So, altogether I get something like 1,5-2hours sleep.
In the morning I got up at 6am, got dressed and went to the bus stop. I have been there at 7am. 15 minutes before the bus was supposed to be there. And it didn’t come! Or maybe it was 30 minutes late, but that was already a time for another bus. Anyway, once again I’ve spent 2 hours on buses and bus stops. At least it didn’t rain. Well, not that much as the last night.

So, just to summerize. Living in Auckland without a car is really hard and can cost You a lot of health. Kiwi public transport and route planners can’t be treated seriously. Just as fire alarms…