Public Transportation

Public Transportation in Auckland sucks.  Maybe because I am an American and I expect that every city outside of the United States has a top notch train or bus system.  Of course almost every US city has no public transit. One week ago I wanted to go the the Avondale farmers market to get a pumpkin for Christmas pumpkin pie.  I googled directions, saw to take the 50 bus.  I went to the bus stop in my neighborhood and waited one hour.  No bus. I had to try again. On Christmas Eve, I went on a mission to find a store called Martha's Back Yard, an American store in East Auckland.  I googled the directions, and I had the choice to take the 635 bus to Abbot's Way or take the Link bus to the 50 bus and walk like an hour.  I thought that the 635 bus would be the best option.  Auckland public transit is run by a company called Maxx.  I looked up the same information on the Maxx website, and the time table that Google had was very similar. I left for the bus stop about 20 minutes before the estimated arrival.   20 minutes after the estimated arrival I was still there.  In the mean time, 5 Link buses had passed me at the stop. The Link bus is supposed to go in a circle around downtown and arrive at a stop every 10 minutes.  At one point one link bus was tailgating the other one, leaving a 15 second interval.  Finally bus 235 arrives.  I take it to Abbot's Way, walk 20 minutes, and find the store.  I found what I was looking for, pumpkin pie extract.  It was NZ$8.  I think that this is a little overpriced, but with the $9.75 bus fare, this may be worth it.  On my way back to the bus stop, it rains.  Its good that the ingredients are in a can.  I see the bus in the distance, I chased it, and missed. that's ok, all I had to do was wait another hour.  I did make it home safely and mostly dry, but in the end it cost me $17.75 for one can of pumpkin extract.  Maybe I am expecting too much from public transit, maybe I was upset at the expensive pumpkin pie mix, maybe I should just buy a car.  I was in Europe in the spring of 2008, and I could go anywhere, but in NZ, cars are the rule not the exception.  I should be grateful that I was able to make pumpkin pie Christmas Day, but no, I still complain about the public transit.(by the way there was no public transit on x-mas day).