Auckland Transport has apologised to Aucklanders as the region's public transport system struggled to cope with what the organisation is calling "chaos".
As another storm descended upon Tāmaki Makaurau, so too did bumper-to-bumper traffic. It meant motorists and commuters were stranded for hours as the worst of Tuesday's weather hit.
At about midday on Tuesday, Auckland Transport joined a chorus encouraging Aucklanders to head home, while at the same time asking them to delay all non-essential travel.
"I apologise for everybody's experience yesterday. Of course, it was not a great time for anybody and I say that as all road users. And that's important: This was not just public transport it was all road users yesterday and, in terms of that, caused four hours of absolute chaos," said Auckland Transport executive general manager of safety Stacey van der Putten.
"It was based on the information we had at the time. It was forecast at that point to actually get worse throughout the day."
But with school closures and emergency management alerts, the flood gates opened and demand easily outstripped what public transport and roads could handle.
Aucklanders were hugely disappointed by the chaotic scenes.
"Appalling, waited over an hour for a bus," one person told Newshub.
"The train stopped, so then you have to catch a bus. I had no idea when the bus was going to come, though," another said.
"Everything got cancelled and then everyone was trying to drive home, and there were delays and crashes everywhere so I think clearly it wasn't up to scratch really," a third person said.
Deputy Mayor Desley Simpson herself is seeking a please explain.
"Look, I think they could always do better - without a doubt - and we've had some conversations with them about that," she said.
As if the lack of reliability wasn't enough, those who did manage to get on a bus were stuck in gridlocked traffic.
"Obviously, in the future the messaging should be to stagger people to prepare our transport system for the horde of people that will be coming out," said Tim Welch, a transportation, infrastructure and urban modelling expert at the University of Auckland.
Instead, Tuesday had the super city at a standstill.
