Northern Advocate
  • Northern Advocate home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Sport
  • Property
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Sport
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings

Locations

  • Far North
  • Kaitaia
  • Kaikohe
  • Bay of Islands
  • Whangārei
  • Kaipara
  • Mangawhai
  • Dargaville

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Kaitaia
  • Whangārei
  • Dargaville

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Northern Advocate

Wyn Drabble: Waiting on the postman

By Wyn Drabble
Hawkes Bay Today·
21 Dec, 2016 11:30 PM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Wyn Drabble.

Wyn Drabble.

Our new and improved postal service gets plenty of flak and some of it is deserved.

The variations are certainly hard to fathom. I had two parcels sent to me from Auckland; one arrived in two days and the other, if it arrives tomorrow (as I write), will have taken 11 days.

I realise that you can pay for different levels of service but this seems too big a disparity.

Whether you fly economy, business or first class, for example, you still travel in the same aircraft and generally arrive at the same time.

Bing bong. Announcing the arrival of flight 123. First class passengers will arrive at 1.15, business class passengers at 1.30 and economy at 1.45. All baggage will be in Nairobi. Thank you.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

While waiting for my second parcel to arrive, I found this encouraging story from Britain.

This very month, a gentleman who had misplaced the address of someone on his Christmas card list decided to hope for the best anyway. He wrote on the envelope:
Tony and Sarah Wren,
Somewhere near the sea in Suffolk.
After that he wrote, "Good luck with that, postie."

The card arrived at the Wren household within a couple of days.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Now, I'm certainly not encouraging people to be lax with their addressing, but that is pretty remarkable.

Maybe the parcel I am still waiting for should have been addressed to Wyn Drabble, somewhere near a newspaper.

I also discovered that earlier this year a similar story happened in Iceland.

The letter was to "a horse farm with an Icelandic/Danish couple, three kids and lots of sheep".

On the envelope beside the "name" was drawn a crude map with a number of roads marked and a red dot indicating the house.

The map even featured a blue shaded area which, by my reckoning, could have been sea, a lake or simply a blue shaded area.

Anyway, the letter was successfully delivered.

Another, addressed to a Peter O'Leary, also used the map method.

On the envelope was a map of Devon and Cornwall. It had an arrow pointing to a corner of Cornwall with the words "somewhere here". It arrived.

The story of the longest-known delivery is probably already well known but I will repeat it here because I get paid by the word.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The longest delivery time I know of is 220 years. In 1790, in France, someone posted a letter to an address which, in modern terms, was a two-hour drive away. I've forgotten the details, but it arrived 220 years later. Unfortunately, on close examination, the addressee was found to be deceased.

To pass the time while I await my second parcel, I have created a handy list of postal charges and conditions.

*Standard letter - $1 (surcharge applies if you want it delivered).

*Hi-speed letter - you've got to be joking (surcharge still applies).

*Fragile items - if you write "fragile" in red on your parcel we guarantee that it will only be thrown underarm. If it's the even more careful "white glove" service you want, just slip the postie $20 or a box of beers (not "lite").

*Do not write to us complaining about our service as your letter may get lost in the mail.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

*Please address all mail very carefully:

Acceptable:
Bruce,
c/- a quite hilly patch near the Kaimanawas (just up from the sheep run),
You can't miss it.
Not acceptable:
Bruce,
Flat 5,
NZ 4157,

Note. If the lobby is locked please stick it under the rock just outside.

I'm not willing to take the risk of mailing this column to the newspaper as it could get lost. I'll email it so it should arrive safely. Unless, of course, the Internet is down.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Northern Advocate

Northern Advocate

'An honour': Far North cafe's triple victory at national awards

12 Jun 03:00 AM
Northern Advocate

World's fastest teen descends on Whangārei for cross country champs

12 Jun 02:17 AM
Northern Advocate

Watch: Discover top talent at this year's Smokefreerockquest and Showquest

12 Jun 01:57 AM

It was just a stopover – 18 months later, they call it home

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Northern Advocate

'An honour': Far North cafe's triple victory at national awards

'An honour': Far North cafe's triple victory at national awards

12 Jun 03:00 AM

Peekaboo Backyard Eatery won the Supreme Award at the Lion Hospitality Awards.

World's fastest teen descends on Whangārei for cross country champs

World's fastest teen descends on Whangārei for cross country champs

12 Jun 02:17 AM
Watch: Discover top talent at this year's Smokefreerockquest and Showquest

Watch: Discover top talent at this year's Smokefreerockquest and Showquest

12 Jun 01:57 AM
Second Northland Two by Twos member charged with sex offences to stand trial

Second Northland Two by Twos member charged with sex offences to stand trial

12 Jun 01:10 AM
The woman behind NZ’s first PAK’nSAVE
sponsored

The woman behind NZ’s first PAK’nSAVE

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • The Northern Advocate e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Northern Advocate
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The Northern Advocate
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP
search by queryly Advanced Search