KEY POINTS:
The drunk man in the booze bus seems to think he is an innocent victim.
"You don't seem to appreciate the impact you have on people's lives," he fumes at the police officers, totally missing the irony of his comments.
"What was I going to do? I'm going 1km to my home and what does that prove? Was I going to go through a pedestrian crossing and kill a child? It's astounding how you can justify this."
The 46-year-old has been drinking at a local pub and is on his way home at 5.45am when he goes through the Symonds St checkpoint, one of 11 operating around the city in the early hours of Saturday morning.
He blows nearly twice the limit but wants a blood test to prove it. As he waits for a nurse to take his blood, he seems confused about why police should target drink-drivers in the central city at that time of the morning.
"Look, mate, I have got to be on the job ... I'm self-employed," he pleads with one officer. He then tries a delaying tactic, saying he needs to go outside to "Johnny Winkle" but is told he'll have to hold on.
Before long, he is angry again and having a go at Auckland City road policing manager Inspector Heather Wells, who tries to explain that drink- drivers cause accidents at all hours of the day.
"For heaven's sake, get in touch with reality ... There's no cars on the road," the man replies. "I see everything [during] the day. There's far more damage out there on the roads in terms of a travesty instead of revenue-collecting for you."
There is little that can be said to get through to this man. He is, like many who end up on the booze bus, more worried about the inconvenience to his evening than the consequences of what could have happened if he had caused an accident while drink-driving.
At another checkpoint, a 19-year-old tries to explain why he's been caught drink-driving when he has a sober friend in the car.
"It's not really drink-driving unless you go a certain distance," he says.
He then says it is cheaper to risk a fine for drink-driving than have his sober friend crash his lowered car and not be able to get insurance.
At Auckland Central police station another two people are awaiting blood tests. One woman is more than twice the legal limit.
Blurry-eyed, she says, "I'm such an idiot", but does not want to talk about it. The other is a lawyer with two previous drink-driving convictions and now facing a third, which he says is unfair and he will fight in court.
There is also a 22-year-old, whose licence was suspended after he was caught drink-driving in Otara on Friday night. Police arranged a dial-a-driver to take him home but he later went back to a friend's place and kept drinking. Several hours later, he drove through the Tamaki Drive checkpoint where he was caught with an even higher reading.
By the time the booze buses pack up at 7am on Saturday the man is one of 65 people who have been caught drink-driving. Yesterday morning, another 60 are caught.
It is a bittersweet result. Ms Wells says it is good to know that many drink-drivers are taken off the roads, but it is worrying they are out there in the first place.
