ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED 03/01/2017
Walking
In most of the medical science degrees you’ll find that as you approach 2nd year you will have to travel between city and Grafton quite frequently. You can walk several routes that usually take 20 minutes or so, or alternatively you can take a multitude of buses. Here is a breakdown of the different routes you can take.
There are three main paths to take, as shown in the screenshot above from Kate Edger to Grafton campus. Although in MEDSCI 142 the lecturers may claim they take a mere 15 minutes to leisurely walk from city to Grafton in time for the labs, this may consist of a half-jog/half-walk as shown from the predicted times in Google Maps.
Route A is probably one of the more popular walks, allowing you to walk past Starbucks on Symonds street and multiple eateries as well as past several bus stops on the way in case you give up on walking and take a bus instead. It’s quite straight forward as you just need to walk up Symonds street until you reach Grafton bridge, at which point you take a left and keep going straight until you reach the campus.
Route B involves walking up the hill to Grafton, which although may save you 2 minutes and 200 metres, usually leaves you sweaty and either sunburnt or drenched, depending on the weather. This is possibly slightly less straight forward compared to route A, as you need to go down the hill past the main OGGB building (Grafton Rd) and cross two sets of lights. Continue walking up Grafton Rd until you reach the main intersection and turn left onto Park Rd.
Route C is the most scenic of the three as you can walk through Auckland Domain. I suggest walking via Lover’s walk as shown in the image below as it is slightly shorter than what is shown in the first image. This is especially lovely in spring as you can take a short stop to have a look at the cherry blossoms if you have a bit of extra time. This is nice when the weather is good and you’re not in a rush but make sure you know where you’re going so you don’t end up getting lost on your way to class.
Bussing
Taking a bus shaves down your trip to approximately 3 to 11 minutes, depending on traffic and which bus stop you catch it from. It is only one stage which costs approximately $1.33 if you use your AT Hop card. You can catch the bus from:
2 Symonds St (Stop 7144) - in front of St Andrews Presbyterian Church, further down from the UoA School of Music
Further up Symonds St, opposite Starbucks, there are 3 bus stops. The two furthest away from the city campus are where you can catch the correct buses from
38 Symonds St (Stop 7150) - the middle bus stop further up Symonds St and opposite Starbucks
44 Symonds St (Stop 7152) - the third bus stop furthest up Symonds St and opposite Starbucks
There are many different buses you can take which means most of the time you can rock up to the bus stop and not need to wait that long before a suitable bus shows up.
These buses include: 70, 75, 322, 505, 532, 595, 625, 881, 966
These all lead you just past Auckland Hospital to the same bus stop (Stop 1028) in front of St Pierre’s sushi and Columbus Café, so you simply need to cross the street and you’ll be at Grafton campus.
It is VERY IMPORTANT to note that any of the express buses should NOT be taken (these are denoted by having an ‘X’ at the end of the bus number) as these will most likely take you straight to the motorway and leave you hopelessly lost and ridiculously late (I learned the hard way!).
On the way back to city you can catch the same buses back from bus stop 7149 which is opposite Auckland Hospital.
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