How is public transport organised in New Zealand

New Zealand is a long, skinny country.

Half of all Kiwi's live in the top half of the North Island.

Around 400 people live on Stewart Island.

Auckland (1.37 million people) and Wellington (449,000 people) are large enough that they have local (suburban) train services, as well as extensive bus networks.

Tauranga (117.000), Taupo (32,000) and Twizel (1200) are very different again.

Queen Charlotte Sound has lots of places that are easier to get to by boat - and Auckland has off-shore islands with thousands of permanent residents. Some people live in Levin and work in Wellington. Others choose to go to university at the other end of the country and hardly go home all year.

And there are big areas where hardly anyone lives at all!

Putting it all together, there is no way that one public transport service or even one type of public transport could meet everyone's needs.

Instead, each region has its own approach.

Until now, this has meant that there was no one public-transport website, either. But we're changing that: OverThere aims to show a comprehensive view of all the public transport options, and link you to information about the services you need.