peejayw: @jpoc  Thanks for the offer but now a neighbour has come to the party with some early, mid and late so I am all set. I do appreciate your offer and would have been quite happy to pay for a few of each variety that you had.

@networkn  Why should he give them away? I was quite happy to buy a few, it was just the quantity issue, hate seeing things going to waste. My garden is quite small and in order to get a crop spread over the whole season we need more than one variety, in my case 4 bags and I would have used 10% of them.
I was not intending to drive around Auckland wasting $$ on petrol, as a pensioner I get free train and bus transport and can still walk a fair way. Just thought you should know.

bazzer:

peejayw: @jpoc  Thanks for the offer but now a neighbour has come to the party with some early, mid and late so I am all set. I do appreciate your offer and would have been quite happy to pay for a few of each variety that you had.

@networkn  Why should he give them away? I was quite happy to buy a few, it was just the quantity issue, hate seeing things going to waste. My garden is quite small and in order to get a crop spread over the whole season we need more than one variety, in my case 4 bags and I would have used 10% of them.
I was not intending to drive around Auckland wasting $$ on petrol, as a pensioner I get free train and bus transport and can still walk a fair way. Just thought you should know.

That's even worse! So we, the taxpayer, are paying for you to traipse all over the countryside to save yourself a few dollars! 

graemeh:

bazzer:

peejayw: @jpoc  Thanks for the offer but now a neighbour has come to the party with some early, mid and late so I am all set. I do appreciate your offer and would have been quite happy to pay for a few of each variety that you had.

@networkn  Why should he give them away? I was quite happy to buy a few, it was just the quantity issue, hate seeing things going to waste. My garden is quite small and in order to get a crop spread over the whole season we need more than one variety, in my case 4 bags and I would have used 10% of them.
I was not intending to drive around Auckland wasting $$ on petrol, as a pensioner I get free train and bus transport and can still walk a fair way. Just thought you should know.

That's even worse! So we, the taxpayer, are paying for you to traipse all over the countryside to save yourself a few dollars! 

The bus and train are going anyway and pensioners are pretty light so don't require much extra diesel or electricity above that required to move the empty vehicle. 

bazzer:

graemeh:

bazzer:

peejayw: @jpoc  Thanks for the offer but now a neighbour has come to the party with some early, mid and late so I am all set. I do appreciate your offer and would have been quite happy to pay for a few of each variety that you had.

@networkn  Why should he give them away? I was quite happy to buy a few, it was just the quantity issue, hate seeing things going to waste. My garden is quite small and in order to get a crop spread over the whole season we need more than one variety, in my case 4 bags and I would have used 10% of them.
I was not intending to drive around Auckland wasting $$ on petrol, as a pensioner I get free train and bus transport and can still walk a fair way. Just thought you should know.

That's even worse! So we, the taxpayer, are paying for you to traipse all over the countryside to save yourself a few dollars! 

The bus and train are going anyway and pensioners are pretty light so don't require much extra diesel or electricity above that required to move the empty vehicle. 

As facetious as I was being, my understanding is that the Government picks up the cost of each trip (whether that be at 100% or some reduced % of the full adult fare). I think I heard they are moving to a bulk funding basis which makes a lot of sense for the reasons you state.

graemeh: 

Trains, in particular, are HUGELY expensive and if people knew what they really cost they would be shocked.  Spending the same amount on buses would allow us to have business class buses for everyone.

mattwnz:

graemeh: 

Trains, in particular, are HUGELY expensive and if people knew what they really cost they would be shocked.  Spending the same amount on buses would allow us to have business class buses for everyone.

The problem in NZ is economies of scale with public transport. But most places in the world public transport is subsidised. But you also have to look at what the alternative costs are. eg. Wider and more roads and additional maintenance. Trains maybe more on the surface, but they are greener than buses, as they run on electricity. So you do pay more for an eco friendly solution now, or do you pay more in the future with greenhouse polluting buses, with the costs associated with global warming. eg Pay to move cities more inland with rising sea levels, costs associates with more excessive storms etc. Wellington has trolley buses which run on electricity, but are now ditching those for some mad reason.