In 1901 Herbert Bird, driver of the Martinborough – Featherston mail coach, looked back at his first job, delivering mail to Hinakura:
‘You were a man at sixteen then, not a boy. You had to be out and earning. That was the way things were. But, by jingo it was tough all the same.
The roads then were something terrible. Really, you could hardly call them roads, they were little better than tracks. Not metalled for most part. Oh, I suppose the county was trying hard enough but there was no money about at all and certainly no road building machinery. No, men built the road with picks and shovels and horse carts.
I would ride through to Martinborough and ride back with the mail which had come in from Featherston rail. As there got more mail I got a pack horse. I remember when Martinborough was flooded in for seven days. The town was completely cut off.
After any heavy rain I would ride as far as I could. Then I would dismount and lead the horse as far as possible to take him. From there I would take the mail on my back, through water and mud up to my thighs. Over slips and logs, through more mud and water.
When I got to Martinborough I would sling the mail bags down and crack a joke by saying something like “here’s a present for you”. A few minutes for a breather then I would grab the mail from Featherston and go back through it all.
This is an excerpt from the book ‘I was there’, reprinted with kind permission of Bob Brokie
