The Elephant in the Room

May 21st 6.30 am….been lying awake for an hour willing myself to get in the shower! Actually woken by Auckland Transport..sending their half hourly buses to Waiwera to collect the hundreds of retirees who commute from Waiwera to Auckland.

Step back….right through the last eight weeks (lockdown) the Waiwera bus service has been unrelenting, on time, and lined up, down the street (when one goes another pulls in to the beach bus stop)

I just found out in the weekend that the buses were free for all in lockdown, but as we were all isolating no one stepped aboard. They came (and still come) from 5.30am until 11.30pm every day, left empty and the next empty one rolled in. Sure this was keeping the bus drivers employed, but at what expense? They could have been home gardening like the rest of NZ on the wage subsidy. And they couldn’t even use Waiwera as their toilet stop (as many used to) with the public toilets wired closed.

Surely this is a waste of resources, no one catches the early buses. Even now, the couple of retirees, who do make the odd excursion to Orewa for supplies, wait until after 9.00am, as it is free for folks over 65 after this time. (Not a profitable operation for Auckland transport)

Waking us all up at 5.30am, with a steady drum of hydraulic breaking , as they stop outside waiting for their turn at the bus stop is becoming rather antisocial.

Yesterday I saw the real world with a trip to the workplace warehouse. I saw motorways, cars, harbour bridge, cars, trucks, more motorway, more cars and trucks! After a journey there in the morning and a journey back in the afternoon I was reassured of the benefits of working from home! Certainly don’t miss the travelling (and can put up with the bus wake up calls). I do miss the face to face client contact, but we are not really allowed to do that yet!

Anyway the fifth bus for the morning is now parked outside my window (7.00am), lining up for the prime position, yes empty on arrival and no one queueing at the bus stop, to get in first to get the back seat! It must be time to step forth for the day, the sky is lightening and the world is waking up (those who weren’t at 5.30am).