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28 <strong>Selwyn</strong> <strong>Times</strong> Wednesday <strong>May</strong> 1 <strong>2024</strong><br />
SELWYN RURAL LIFE<br />
Advertising Feature<br />
Rural postal service – still a treasure<br />
• By Isabelle Teresa<br />
Like many rural households across<br />
<strong>Selwyn</strong>, we recently received a letter.<br />
While that in itself is a surprising event<br />
these days, we were then confused to<br />
see that it was from NZPost. (Still, to be<br />
fair, how else would they communicate<br />
– email???)<br />
Knowing that NZPost had been in the<br />
news for planning to reduce staff and<br />
services, we opened it with trepidation.<br />
And sure enough, our Saturday rural<br />
delivery will be phased out over the next<br />
year. But no criticisms from me.<br />
I write this as an ex-townie. In a big<br />
city (well, Christchurch), anything to do<br />
with post is a nightmare.<br />
David<br />
Bullock<br />
QSM<br />
If you can find a Post Shop that hasn’t<br />
been closed down, the queues are out<br />
the door. If you’re waiting for a parcel<br />
delivery, chances are you’re still waiting.<br />
So many times I’ve watched couriers<br />
drop the “Sorry you weren’t home” card<br />
straight into the letterbox while speeding<br />
merrily by.<br />
Then of course,<br />
if a parcel is<br />
miraculously left<br />
at your door, it’s<br />
nicked in seconds.<br />
So when we<br />
moved to RD2,<br />
we were amazed.<br />
A postie delivers<br />
or collects at your<br />
front door, even if<br />
that’s a kilometre<br />
down a gravel<br />
track? You can<br />
just raise a flag<br />
on your letterbox<br />
and they collect a<br />
letter, some coins,<br />
and post it for you?? This is – and I’m<br />
struggling to remember this phrase –<br />
customer service!<br />
When we moved to RD3, our new<br />
postie quickly spotted our arrival and<br />
knocked with a friendly greeting and<br />
the right form to transfer our details.<br />
Proactive, efficient and helpful, that’s<br />
Dave. (He’s also the second-mostfrequent<br />
man to see me in my dressing<br />
gown, but that reflects more on me than<br />
it does on him.)<br />
Since another simple fact of rural<br />
life is that the postie may be the only<br />
outsider we see in a day, a quick chat<br />
is always nice. In one of these chats,<br />
NZPost again surprised me. Turns out<br />
that Dave received the Queen’s Service<br />
Medal in 2022, for 40 years of local and<br />
national service to bowls. Wow. Kudos<br />
to NZPost for their high calibre of staff!<br />
Everything about rural delivery is a<br />
treasure. If they need Saturdays off to<br />
keep the service more sustainable, that is<br />
fine by me.<br />
DSH Contracting,<br />
Excavation and Cartage<br />
021 323 931 dan@dsh.co.nz<br />
www.christchurchexcavation.co.nz
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