Post Office volunteer Peter Sander, sorting mail at the small Colville post office. Photo: RNZ/Sally Round
The mail always gets through in one of New Zealand's remotest regions, thanks to some dedicated volunteers who run the local post office.
While rural mail services are shrinking, Colville, in the north-west of Coromandel Peninsula, has a thriving mail service based in the small community's original post office, with a band of volunteers taking turns behind the counter and sorting the mail.
Even if it's just "Mike the Man" for an address, someone will know who it is, according to volunteer Peter Sander.
"It's quite hard case at times.
"We know who's who, and if it's addressed wrong, still gets to them."
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Sander used to run a holiday camp in the district, not far from Colville, which consists of a volunteer-run general store and community hub serving a 1500-strong community all the way up to Port Jackson in the north.
Volunteering has been an important part of his life, he told Country Life.
"Sometimes we'll only get one or two customers in a day … buying stamps or whatever, but that's okay."
New Zealand's postal system underwent sweeping changes in the late 1980s and many small post offices closed.
But not Colville's, thanks to the locals.
With a limited rural delivery service, they saw the need for a hub where people could pick up their parcels, mail could be sent, and visitors could buy stamps or a postcard.
Sander, standing by the post boxes at the post office. Photo: RNZ/Sally Round
"The local people thought, hang on, because they started it right back in 1896, started with telecommunications, and then later on they wanted three times a week mail delivery, because there was a lot of gold mining and farming done in the area."
Sander said right from the early days, the community was involved in setting up the post office, even milling the timber from White Star Station, a local farm, pit sawing and carting the timber and raising money to pay for the building works too.
"They've got a paddock there that's named the post office paddock."
The Colville post office sells stamps and memorabilia, catering for locals and visitors alike. Photo: RNZ/Sally Round
Visitors are interested in the history of the place, Sander said, and it's a centre for much more than just post.
"They come in and read the information, sign the visitor's book, and they can't believe what we do here. We show them the old scales, and we used to have a thing here saying what to do if you get held up with a gun from the old days."
Volunteers also run the incorporated society which is behind the service. It earns a small amount of income from 10 percent of stamp sales and donations.
The post office volunteers sort the mail and serve customers. It's been volunteer run since 1986. Photo: RNZ/Sally Round
"Everything's tracked and electronic, we do that, and we've got to scan it all and track it through.
"We get about $1000 a year or something, which is enough to buy a can of paint. Occasionally, people will come and give a nice donation for us to hold their mail for them, because they've gone away for a month or so. So they might put 10 or 20 bucks in the donation box for us to do that.
"That's how community works."
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