With dozens of bus pics shooting into the ABC inbox, it was ultimately Grady Weatherley-Connell who took home Best Bus February after he submitted a motion shot of a Ritchies 1129 Explorer bus hitting the town on New Years Day.
Weatherley-Connell’s winning photo beat a hotly contested field, including an action shot from Andrew Nikolzev of a Ventura bus being swarmed by cockatoos.
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Jackie Sloothaak was fighting for the top spot as well, her snap of a shuttle bus taking day trippers and overnight hikers up and down the mountain from Tidal River to Mt Oberon in the running.
Previous winner Damien Shiambi was also in the count, his ominous photo of a fleet of Ventura buses taking a rest bringing a much-loved energy to the competition.
There were another two entries from our winner Weatherley-Connell, both sporting that New Zealand flair. Two different Transurban CRRC eT12 MAX’s running services around Auckland.
While we had our eyes on a couple of entries, it was ultimately Weatherly-Connell and the Explorer which won us in the end.
“The picture is of a Ritchies 1129 Alexander Dennis Enviro500 sporting the Ritchies livery,” he told ABC.
“The bus was helping out on the Auckland Explorer bus on New Year’s Day 2025.”
For his win, Weatherly-Connell received a free 12-month subscription to ABC Magazine, while the winning photo is live as ABC’s Facebook page cover photo for all of February.
If you want to be like Weatherly-Connell and have your best photo shown off courtesy of Best Bus, then don’t forget to send through your photos for March and the rest of 2025 via our website or by keeping an eye on our Facebook page for more details.
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