CARLESS DAYS

Carless Day sticker 1979

For the younger viewer who may or may not read this. regardless of what 'spell-check' might say. it is carless days and not careless days that is the title of this post. Carless Days was an invention of the Muldoon Government in 1979 as a response to the fuel crisis. Private car owners had to stop using their car on one (chosen) day a week. Each car had to show a sticker on its windscreen which noted the day on which it could not be used, and infringements were punishable by a hefty fine. This lasted less than a year basically because of the short-cuts that people took (black-market in stickers), misuse of the exemption system and the fact that many families had more than one car.




I've been in Auckland the last couple of days having travelled down there and back by tourist bus so had no car to get around in. I had to resort to (gasp) buses, the plebeian form of public transport. Generally these are OK and fun and took me back to my school days in Wellington.

WARNING - THE FOLLOWING IS A BIT DODGY

For The Confusion Chronicler: When I was in about the fourth form (god knows what 'year' this is in modern school systems), on the bus I took to school there were two gorgeous blond girls of about my age, sisters I think, who went to W.E. school. Their blond hair was striking against their pale blue uniforms and played on a young chaps fancy. I used to look forward to seeing them on the bus in the morning. They shone out amongst the grey suits and dour faces of the morning workers and sleepy school-kids. They lived a few stops further down towards the end of the bus route. I remember one afternoon on the way home they were sitting on one of the side seats opposite to where I was sitting. Obviously I looked at them (as unobviously as I could muster). When it was coming close to where my stop was I was acutely aware of the erection I had and could not stand up and exit the bus without them, facing me, noticing. I sat hunched and still. When I didn't get off (the bus Richard), they glanced at me inquisitively. This was an unrequited relationship so there had been no words ever exchanged. When their stop came up a few stops down the line they exited, giggling and looking at me (Quasimodo-like and red in the face). I quickly exited a couple of stops further on and walked a circuitous route home.

The problem is with buses, they are fine for the initiated but cause anxiety for those not 'in-the-know'.


Where do you wait for the one you want? Where is it going to go? How much should it cost? When should I press the buzzer to get off? There basically is not enough information at the stops or on the bus to tell you this. I prefer to walk.


So I walked about Auckland. I had to go to the main hospital so walked across Grafton bridge. On entering the bridge I noticed the entrance to the Grafton Cemetery. I must have driven past this hundreds if not thousands of times over the years and had never entered. Today I did. For those who don't know Auckland, Grafton Cemetery and Reserve is a kind of mini New York Central Park. The place where drunks, drug addicts, muggers, the homeless and rapists hang out. It is vast, shady and wonderfully creepy. Having an hour to spare I wandered about checking out the old gravestones (William Hobson is buried there) and marvelling at the native bush - in the middle of the city ( a bit like the Wellington Botanical Gardens but more unkempt and as if they were in say Cuba Street).


Revel Cafe K Rd.


Talking about Cuba Street, I love the little shops, second hand bookshops and quirky cafes there. Auckland has never seemed to have these. When in a second hand store though in St Kevins Arcade in Karangahape Road (walking to Grafton) I asked the woman there where a good coffee could be had. She said her favourite was Revel's across the road because it reminded here of Wellington. I went there and it was marvellous. Apart from bloody good coffee and food it has a lovely 'junk' atmosphere. No stainless steel and glass just old scarred furniture, bookshelves, close and warm surroundings - great.




You can see a lot more of a city by walking about. It's the way I've experienced cities overseas so I must do more of it at home.