The Deepest Station

Hello everyone. We're standing at the foot of the longest escalator in New Zealand.  From the time you step on it, in the picture just above, to the time you step off takes one minute and 22 seconds. Then of course, you still have to take the other escalator, shown above this picture, to bring you to the surface.  

We are on the Pitt Street side of the Karanga-a-Hape train station and we're ten stories down.  This is the deepest point of the newly opened portion of the train system in Auckland.  

I'm delighted with the change.  Let me give you one reason. 

Martha's Backyard is the American products store in Panmure, which is on the East side of Auckland, and is a place we to love to shop at every now and then. (They have Crisco)  Before the train upgrade, to get to Martha's, I'd have to take our local Western train to Britomart, wait about 15 minutes for the connection, and then ride an Eastern Line Train to Panmure.  Total time involved was about an hour, 40 minutes.  

Or, I could take our Western Line train to Grafton, get off, wait for bus 70 to come along, and ride it to Panmure.  Total time was also about an hour 40.  

Since the new line opened up, I get on our new East-West Line train and ride directly to Panmure.  Elapsed time is about 55 minutes.  

If I want to, I can jump off at the K' Road station (Karanga-a-Hape) in either direction and ride the escalators.  The trains come along about every 12 minutes so doing such a side-trip wouldn't slow me down much at all.  

And believe it or not, for folks over 65, all the train, bus and ferry rides here in Auckland are free. (You do need to apply for a Gold Card, which is easy, and you have to log on and off each conveyance with your ATHOP card. And, some businesses give a Gold Card holder five to ten percent off on purchases.)

Let me also show you a couple of other shots down here.  I'm taking the green E-W Line toward Swanson, (My stop, Henderson, is two stops before Swanson) so I don't have long to wait.  If I were going to Martha's, I'd take the E-W line toward Manukau.   

This is one of the cross-tunnels.  

It's hard to get a sense of distance in a tunnel like this, but this is about two blocks long. I'll show you the two stations up on the surface next.  They're two blocks apart.  

This is the station I usually come up to.  It's on Pitt Street.

  

This is the other one, on Mercury Lane. 

We're back on Pitt Street and outside a favorite of mine.  This is where Jeanne and I come to buy various crispy flat breads and where we found Quark, the soft cheese. We've found that we like the cheese even better when Jeanne adds chopped chives and a little garlic salt to it. 

So now you're somewhat more familiar with our new City Rail Link. (I should probably also show you what's deep below Auckland's Sky Tower.)  

Check back soon.   -djf