A day with the postman (and his wife) may not sound that intiguing. But when that postman is taking you round 120  of volcanic byways and bays, and as many postboxes, it might. 

The postman takes up to eight passengers. Before collecting them he drives the school bus, then sorts the post. He is also an engineer. He is called Geoff. His wife Susie is part time postwoman, winter time teacher and also grows all the veg, makes jams and chutneys, all her own bread and so forth. 

This is one of the village halls where she and Geoff stop to deliver mail to several boxes. The floor is sprung and it still has frequent meetings. 

The warnings resonate: 

The church memorial plaques celebrate the ships that brought the deceased: 

Whilst the church is a beautiful spot: 

We saw some wonderful mailboxes:

Tea on the beach:

Complete with homemade cakes, chutney. And a kiwi tablecloth: 

And the school bell (used to call children off the beach for lessons): 

Geoff also does drop deliveries of the newspapers: this involves him hurling them out of the van onto the drive. They enquire after people who have not emptied their box, take sick people to town and take people back home-and in the case where a bird is building a nest in one box, he is very careful how he puts the letter inside

Geoff and susy were insistent on showing us a so-called ‘street collection point’. A postbox to you and me – but most post reaches the PO  By people leaving it in their mailbox waiting for Geoff to collect it. Strange world. Finally to camp at the rapaia river, base of the walk to the Rapaia Gorge.