Yarpole

Hoping someone with knowledge of Auckland might be able to help. I am about to relocate to Auckland, as I have a job at Greenlane Clinical Centre in Epsom. We have primary school aged kids and had been considering renting a home in Takapuna, for schools, beach and community feel. However my relocation consultant (based in Auckland) has expressed shock at the long commute it would involve and is encouraging us to look at a more central suburb.

Google maps says the drive at 7:30am would be around 30-35mins. I would then need to park somewhere and walk to the hospital, so figured whole journey would take 45mins, maybe an hour on a bad day. I currently live in London and this would not be an unusually long commute. Is my frame of reference for a “long commute” just different from a local’s, or am I being ridiculously optimistic, and in reality the commute would be much worse? Are Google maps’ live traffic timings accurate in Auckland? I keep being told horror stories about Auckland traffic, and the bridge in particular.

Would really appreciate views from anyone with recent experience of Auckland, compared to London!

Justcol

My north shore born and bred wife said 35 mins at 5 in the morning. For 7.30 she reckons closer to 1½ to 2 hours, and good luck finding somewhere to park.
Better get a bus to the city (or get down to Devonport and get the ferry) l and a train from there to Greenlane.

bga

Greenlane is a pig to get to at busy times unfortunately - absolutely better off getting a rental in Mission Bay/St Heliers if wanting the beach close by (It'll still be painful getting to GL but less so if not the other side of the bridge) but is not a cheap rental option, nowhere is - this link may help re Public Transport - https://at.govt.nz/bus-train-ferry/j...gDistance=1000

Yarpole

Yikes, okay - really glad I asked, thanks so much for your responses!! That’s strange - Google maps live traffic and driving times are really accurate here in the UK - sounds as though that’s not the case in Auckland then?

I have since been told by my work that there is staff parking at GL apparently, but a 1-2hr daily commute is definitely not what I had in mind, so back to the drawing board!

Bo-Jangles

That would be about right for Saturdays and Sundays but definitely not on a weekday; it could take you that long to get onto the motorway at both ends of the day, going there and also coming back. You would need to allow at least an hour on a good day and pray that it doesn't rain and that nobody breaks down or crashes.

Bo-Jangles

Any chance you could land a job at North Shore Hospital later down the track?

tht

I left NZ nearly 14 years ago now. I was in West Auckland along the 16, and worked central by the hospital. As others have noted what could be a 20 min drive could suddenly become 1.5h+ one by leaving 15-20 mins later , I ended up going in at 6:30am to avoid it. I had a GF who lived in Devenport, did that commute a few times and it was not great, first you backtrack to the motorway and then back down. I believe they have been building new roads and transit options but AKL has grown a lot as well. Traffic/commute was one of my reasons for leaving. I would definitely agree with others on living close to work.

Timmy Chch

Cindy would rather you biked to work!

Bo-Jangles

Except it's going to be at least another five years until we get the cycle / pedestrian bridge over the harbour, if at all.

Justcol

I'm sure a few more displays of dissent from the overly self entitled cycling community could sway things.
It must be difficult riding a bike with their heads shoved so far up their own arses

Clappy

I never liked commuting when I lived in London so I used to live in zone 2 so I could use the Docklands Light Railway (mostly overground) and keep the journeys short. Even then, in the final year I switched to using the Thames ferry services because although they took longer it was more civilized.

At least in London you can do other things like read or watch stuff on your phone while you move. In Auckland most commutes mean driving so you have to focus on that while moving. When the traffic in Auckland is moving it is not too bad but once any issues occur with weather (just some light rain is enough to spark a meltdown) or other drivers then that can bring everything to a standstill.

I live on the West side of Auckland and work on the North side so my current commute is 25 kilometres around the Northwest side of the city. Motorway most of the way.

On the days that I do go in to the office then I try to leave home by 6.00am. The journey then takes 30 minutes. If I left much later the journey time would double and I would also face the same issue on the return. I do not envy the people that have to commute over the bridge.

One piece of advice I would give for living in Auckland is to buy yourself a nice car because you will spend a lot of time sitting in it going nowhere so best be comfortable.

Charismatic

Bo-Jangles

True dat!

Clappy

I can add some real statistics now because I had to drive to Greenlane for an appointment this morning.

I live on the western side of Auckland. I left from home Thursday morning at 6:45am and it took until 7:45am driving to Greenlane. That is 16 kilometres as the crow flies but the on-the-ground distance driven was 22 kilometres.

There were no obvious traffic incidents along the way so that is standard commuting traffic. As said before, buy yourself a comfortable car.