Opinion: Let me tell you another tale of why Auckland is not equipped to hold big events.
The supercity has all these big stadiums, arenas and venues but no way of efficiently moving tens of thousands of people to and from them.
I went to Harry Styles after I finished the show last night.
He was performing at Mt Smart Stadium in the suburb of Penrose, which as the crow flies, is about 9km southeast of the city centre.
So it's not a million miles away - but last night it was impossible to get to from central Auckland using public transport.
The trains are currently out of action because there's a massive rebuild of the rail line foundations, so getting off at Penrose or Te Papapa is out of the question.
Nonetheless, Auckland Transport said it was up to the task and made it free to travel on any of its services yesterday if you flashed your Harry Styles concert ticket to the bus driver or at the train station.
Auckland Transport suggested taking the train from Britomart to Panmure, then taking a connecting bus to Penrose, and walking from there.
There was also a special Mt Smart bus service leaving every 10 minutes from central Auckland.
My group of friends and I decided to take that special bus. We wandered down to the pickup area at 7:20 pm and couldn't believe what greeted us.
It was pandemonium. A line of people waiting for the same bus service. Hundreds of people were in the line, which wound its way around the block, and then around the next one.
It was a line of colour, feathers, and sparkles - but also a line of frustration and sad faces. Some people had been waiting there for more than an hour.
We decided to throw in the towel and ordered two Ubers - which was a small fortune given everyone was trying to do the same so prices were surging.
We eventually got to the stadium and made our way in. The concert was epic. No complaints about that. Harry was epic and the venue was great - even if they'd run out of beer before we got there.
Getting home would be easier, right? Wrong. Too many people trying to get on too few services.
So I ended up walking 4km with a mate who was in a moon boot to catch the bus into the city. I managed to catch the last bus of the night. All up, it took me two hours to get home.
Auckland is a nightmare to navigate. Something needs to change. We are certainly not a world-class city.
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