It used to be that visits to Auckland to see friends and relations and the multiple attractions of the Big Smoke depended on hiring a rental car.
Could we go carless this time and rely on the sometimes-notorious public transport network? In winter, no less.
Dropping us off at Fruitvale train station, New Lynn, in their electric car, our Westie hosts reminded us to tag on with our AT (Auckland Transport) Hop gold card on the platform, before boarding. There’d be no fiddling around once on the train. Electronic signs on the platform counted down the minutes to when the next train would arrive bound for the downtown Britomart hub.
Once on board, we found the train had a mere sprinkling of passengers this mid-morning run. Quietly humming beneath overhead power lines, the carriages looked new, clean and brightly lit.
For the 25-minute run to Britomart, we had views of big-city life you don’t get from a car, notably the backyards of light industry, offices, suburban housing and apartment blocks.
In particular, the rectangular apartments and infill housing, much of it relatively new, presented a case for medium to high-density residential living with a low-rise profile — arguably a better option than endless sprawling subdivisions with all the associated environmental and transport impacts.
Stations on this Western line had familiar names — Avondale, Mt Albert, Grafton, Newmarket, Parnell — and they rolled up surprisingly quickly, each one announced on the train’s PA system in English and te reo, with a warning to passengers to "mind the gap" between train and platform.
Just beyond glimpses of the sporting fortress of Eden Park, we were suddenly alongside a group of basalt-black turreted buildings from another age — the notorious Mt Eden Prison, a heritage building lying dormant these days. Short tunnels, graffiti-laden cuttings and siding tracks heralded the approach to our downtown destination.
It all seemed too easy at this time of day.
On our way from the platforms to the modern new reception area of Britomart — and reminding ourselves to not forget to tag off — we stopped to talk to a uniformed woman who turned out to be the train manager. She helpfully explained the trains routinely ran with just two staff members, a driver and a manager, who decades earlier would have been called the guard. I noticed she carried a trademark silver whistle.
The manager told us that at peak hours each carriage had room for well over 200 passengers, seated or standing holding overhead straps. At busy times, a train might carry over a thousand passengers.
The rail network has a wide reach. In all, Auckland Council operates 41 train services across four lines — Western, Southern, Eastern and Onehunga.
We exited Britomart with a spring in our step, heading for the next offering in Auckland’s public transport network — the ferry terminal by the Port of Auckland wharves, a few minutes’ walk from Britomart.
There’s nowhere like it elsewhere in New Zealand.
Devonport was where we were bound for lunch with relatives.
Again, it’s a Hop card tag-on — and free to seniors. It’s just 10 minutes across the harbour by ferry. Beyond the uncrowded Devonport wharf area is a downtown shopping centre a world apart from Queen St.
The magnificent Moreton Bay fig shading the town’s modern library by the esplanade is worth the ferry ride alone.
Judging by the number of second-hand bookshops, it’s a well-read community, and the used-clothing stores with chatty proprietors add to the recycling ambitions of the town. Where the Thai massage practitioners fit in, I’m not sure. There are at least two of them in the shopping area.
Four hours later, after a fine lunch, we set off on the return journey to Queens Wharf, Britomart and the Western line railway. Again, by way of an efficient process, dozens of Devonport-bound passengers disembarked beside our queue waiting to board, and soon we were back among skyscrapers.
Our sampling of public transport Auckland style, by train and ferry over a couple of days, made a positive impression. We’d do it all again, especially excursions by ferry.
Fare-charging ferries even sail for Great Barrier Island/Aotea, largest of the Hauraki Gulf islands, but not every day.
Memo to self: Must go there some time.
