As the big yellow bus rumbles past the avenues, two suited passengers chat by the window.
They are Tauranga City Council transport committee chairman Rick Curach and NZ First MP Clayton Mitchell, who is spending this sunny Friday travelling around by bus and foot to "know what it's like" for people who don't drive.
For Mr Mitchell, the day started when he walked his children to school. He then took a bus to a meeting with former mayor Stuart Crosby. At 9.40am he met Mr Curach at a bus stop on 2nd Ave to wait for the number 40 bus to a meeting in Welcome Bay with learning-disability group People First.
There were a couple of false starts as other buses came and went.
"We're novices at this bus-transportation thing," Mr Mitchell said, "but by the end of the day we'll be experts."