Parking attendants keep the chaos at bay

This year’s Maadi has been one of the biggest and busiest.

All those supporters, rowers, coaches, and officials bring hundreds of cars in and out every day. And with the finals starting, Karapiro Rowing Incorporated gate attendants are expecting that to go up to between one and three thousand each day.

That many cars trying to jam into the fields by Lake Karapiro could be chaos.

Good thing KRI gate attendants, like John Davis at Gate 3, have a system.

One of 15 attendants across five gates, Davis’ job is make sure people can come and go freely. He untangles the snarls, clears through lanes, eases the way for the elderly and guides people back to lost cars.

It starts early in the morning. Everyone always tries to get close to the team tents, so that is the bit Davis fills up first.

“The sooner we fill that up, the less contact [the teams] have with everybody else,” he said.

It just makes things easier on the teams, so they don’t have to deal with as many cars coming, going, and arguing over spots.

After that cars are directed into lines, starting from the top of the hill. Station wagons and vans in front, cars behind so there is plenty of room.

As he’s doing that, the voices of the other attendants crackle over the radio, giving Davis a heads up on traffic flow or people who need a hand.

“Another one coming to you now, a kaumātua,” it buzzed.

The job is all about knowing who people are, and what they might need.

“[When] they’re what we call kaumātua and a little bit older, we park them closer to the road; so we can get a little cart there and cart them down [to the lake],” Davis said.

By midday the early races are finished and some people have already left for the day. Davis fills in the gaps left behind, keeping a few in reserve for overflow from other areas.

By this point he’s already played detective for a few people who have lost their cars.

Davis has a simple method to find a wayward car. He asks one question.

What time did they come in?

“If they can tell me that I can figure out which bit we put them in,” he said

“But if they’ve come in later than 11, they’ve probably filled a hole. Then I’ll have to ask a couple more questions.”

There’s only one kind of car that Davis struggles to track down. White ones. They’re his kryptonite.

“The trouble is when people come in and ask where their white car is. Out of the 800ish cars here now, about 30 percent are white,” he said.

Leading into the end of the day is just as busy for Davis. The only difference is more cars are going out than coming in.

Traffic still needs to flow.

“It gets pretty complicated and pretty busy,” Davis said.

The hardest thing is keeping the through lanes clear. If he doesn’t catch a blockage quickly it can become a game of  ‘how many points can I get in this 3-point turn?’

“[There’s] always  a few trying to get the closest car parks, blocking lanes and trying it on to get near. Otherwise everyone’s really, really good,” he said.

At the end of the day dealing with people, especially motorists, is never going to be completely orderly.

But Davis is confident the attendants can keep things going smoothly.

“[KRI] have pretty much everything all worked out here,” he said

Years of experience with Maadi has taught Davis, and his fellow KRI gate attendants, how to keep the chaos at bay.