Life without a car in Auckland, frankly, sucks.
Possibly not so much if you live, work and play in town, but otherwise?
During the week I get by fine like I always have, unless I need to go somewhere out of the ordinary. I bus into town in the morning and I bus back at night.
But on the weekends? Things like going grocery shopping, doing laundry, or visiting friends or family is damn near impossible. We’ve been borrowing BF’s brother’s car/scooter, but in an NZ winter, trust me, you want to be covered up outside. Flatmate’s car’s rego and warrant have run out, not to mention the broken taillight and the scraping wheel guard. Not something you wanna drive, or be caught driving (for things like broken lights they slap the fine on YOU, not the registered car owner).
We live about five minutes walk from the bus stop. The bus will get us to town, or down the road to New Lynn where we can shop at the ridiculously overpriced Foodtown. We can’t bus to Pak n Save, or even Countdown. And let’s not get into what a bitch it is to lug a week’s worth of shopping on the bus and then from the bus stop, across two busy roads and to our house. The same kinda goes for bussing down to the laundromat; it’s not so much carrying the dirty clothes there, but lugging the wet, heavy clothes on the way back. We were set to hit the laundromat last week when we had the car, except it had already closed. So now we have about a month’s worth of laundry needing to be done :(. I did do a bit of handwashing this morning, which is currently on the line (hopefully, given the crazy winds and rain this afternoon) still dripping.
We so need a car. And definitely before August, when our lease ends and we’ll need transport to look at new places (we plan to move to a totally different suburb) and to move.
Here’s where we’re at. Dead car. $2000 left to pay it off (probably about what it’s worth now). $1300 to fix, not to mention all the other little things wrong with it. Urgh.
I would love to get a half decent car for 5-6k (which would involve borrowing, sadly, and isn’t going to happen). So it’s going to have to be a beater in cash (ie, next nothing, which is all we can afford).
I’m hoping my mum gets a new car really, really soon. She’ll be happy to pawn hers off on me for cheap, and I’ll be happy to take it. BF is all set on having a manual, but you know what they say about beggars and choosing.
Cars can be SO stressful! I so wish that Kansas City had more public transportation or was walker friendly so I didn’t have to drive so much. Good luck! I’m sure you’ll find something!