Transport operations planning behind Aotearoa’s biggest events

One of the Johnston's coaches delivering park and ride shuttle services between Raglan Airfield and Manu Bay

For most people attending a major event, transport is simply part of the experience. They arrive, enjoy the event and head home without giving much thought to how they got there. That's exactly how it should be.

Behind that invisibility is months of planning, operational coordination across multiple teams and the ability to adapt in real time when conditions change. Over the past two months, Kinetic New Zealand supported transport operations for two of the country’s largest events: the World Surf League (WSL) Championship Tour in Raglan during May and Fieldays at Mystery Creek in June. Together, they welcomed well over 150,000 visitors to the Waikato region and presented two very different operational challenges.

The WSL Championship Tour presented an operational challenge that's difficult to plan for: an event schedule dictated by the surf. With road closures in place and wave conditions determining when competition would run, transport operations remained on standby throughout a 12-day event window that included four cancellation days.

The team operated park and ride shuttle services between Raglan Airfield and Manu Bay, deploying 20 buses each day and drawing on around 50 drivers from seven locations across the Kinetic network, including drivers and vehicles from Kinetic Urban, Go Bus, and Johnston’s. Vehicles remained on standby throughout the event, ready to mobilise whenever competition resumed.

The biggest challenge came during afternoon departures. With space for no more than 10 buses at Manu Bay, vehicles had to be carefully staggered to keep the event's main access road clear. When competition paused or concluded, large crowds could arrive with little warning. A dedicated communications channel kept the on-site coordinator, airfield supervisor and drivers connected, allowing buses to be dispatched in real time as demand built.

For Go Bus Area Manager – Central North Island, Joanne Burman, success came down to the team's ability to adapt.

"You can plan for a schedule, but you can't plan for the surf. Every day brought something different, and every time conditions changed, the team adapted without hesitation. The drivers were outstanding, navigating large vehicles on narrow coastal roads while keeping people moving safely. I'm incredibly proud of what everyone achieved. Saying goodbye at the end was surprisingly emotional because it really was such a special event to be part of."

Fieldays is a different kind of challenge; not unpredictability, but sustained scale. More than 132,000 visitors attended over four days, requiring coordinated park and ride services from Hamilton and Cambridge alongside shuttle services throughout the Mystery Creek site.

Kinetic, through Go Bus, has proudly supported the event for more than 20 years, building deep operational knowledge of the site, traffic flows and visitor movements. Behind the scenes, operations, rostering, logistics and frontline teams worked in close coordination, supported by morning driver briefings, on-site supervisors and real-time vehicle tracking through EROAD, Kinetic’s fleet management system. This allowed the team to monitor traffic conditions, respond quickly to emerging issues and keep services running smoothly from first arrival to final departure.

Across four days, the park and ride operation moved 16,826 passengers over 327 trips:

• 5,578 from The Base 
• 3,237 from Hamilton Transport Centre 
• 8,011 from Cambridge 

For Hamilton-based Kinetic Urban Operations Manager Kellie Martin, it's the years of experience behind the event that make the difference.

"Fieldays is one of those events where the preparation really shows on the day. Because we've been supporting it for more than 20 years, the team understands how the event works and where the pressure points are. Everyone knows their role, and that experience allows us to adapt quickly and keep thousands of people moving safely and efficiently."


Kinetic urban drivers behind 2026 Fielday park and ride service operations

While the two events were operationally very different, the fundamentals were the same: detailed planning well in advance, experienced teams who know how to work across organisational boundaries, real-time communication when conditions change, and the ability to absorb pressure without it reaching the people you’re moving.

It’s a capability we’ve built over decades. From more than 20 years supporting Fieldays to delivering transport for the FIFA Women’s World Cup™, SailGP and MEETINGS, Kinetic in New Zealand has developed the scale, the relationships and the institutional knowledge to deliver at every level of complexity.