Waiheke Bus "optional" routes

I seem to strike particularly terrible bus drivers on Waiheke. They are either late, don't know where they are going or batty.
On Sunday night getting slow route 3 home to Surfdale I expected to get off at a bus stop in Wellington Road. But instead the driver went straight ahead to Ostend without making the customary detour through East Surfdale.
When remarking to him that he forgot to turn left he said that the detour is "optional" and I should have asked him before we started at Matiatia.
I had never heard of optional bus routes on Waiheke. Are there many of them? Is the Waiheke Bus Company really a taxi company and if you ask the driver nicely he'll drop you off at your door? (Considering the huge fares the WBC is charging, the taxi companies in many cases in price-competitive against the bus!) Or does "optional" mean "when the bus driver can be bothered"?
I was also wondering how long passengers at "optional" bus stops have to wait until a bus appears.