06 May 2024

Returning to the River Road

Kei Te Taiao Back Roads.

writer: Sionainn Mentor-King

photographer: Michelle Porter

Shepherdess featured cycle-tour operator and rural postie Tracy Marshall, of Te Āti Haunui-a-Pāpārangi and Ngāti Pāmoana, in the Back Roads of our Winter 2022 Edition. Nearly two years on, we catch up with Tracy, 57, to talk about how the Mail Run keeps her connected to the Whanganui River, and the people who live by its banks, throughout the seasons.

Top image. The historic Downes Hut, located in Whanganui National Park, on the right bank of the Whanganui River. It was originally built by historian, ethnologist and river works supervisor Thomas William Downes in the early 1900s. Above. “I listen to music and podcasts while I’m driving, also audio books – I have to be a bit careful there, because I could go to sleep if I’m not careful,” Tracy says. “I listen to te reo podcasts – Taringa , I’ve been listening to that. There’s lots of different stuff that I listen to. There is a whole world out there, and for some reason I’ve been getting a radio station, which has been quite good as well.”

I’m originally from up the Whanganui River. I came back from living in Australia in 2011 and purchased a post shop in Whanganui. The River Road Mail Run and tour became available in 2020. I haven’t looked back.

I get to the New Zealand post depot at about six o’clock every day, sort the mail, the parcels, then I load up and wait for the supermarket to open if I need to take anything up the river for people. They message me all hours of the night. It’s hilarious. Can I pick up this? Can I do this? Mostly it’s dog and cat biscuits, occasionally medication. I might get the milk and bread, but they don’t buy junk up there. They buy things that are necessary. I did get asked once if I would take up an alpaca for Auntie Marlene, because her other one had died. I would do anything for any of them – I will move anything, if it can fit in the van, I’ll take it up to them – but not livestock. Someone else will do that!

Above. A wharenui-inspired mailbox along Tracy’s Mail Run. “The whole tourism piece has been about me employing more locals. I’ve got some cyclists starting in Ohakune tomorrow, so I’ve got my seventy-four-year-old uncle doing the Mail Run for me. He lives in town now, but he knows them all up there. He is really good on the road. He delivers and he loves it. It gives him something to do. He came back the other day and I looked at him and I said, ‘How come you use less fuel than me?’ And he said, ‘Because I drive better than you. I don’t drive as fast.’”

If I have tour customers, I’ll go and pick them up about seven, then head up the river. If I don’t have customers with me, and if I don’t talk to anyone, I normally get back about one o’clock. I’m surprised I haven’t got bored with all the driving – I do over 140 kilometres a day, Whanganuito Pipiriki and back. But every day is so different for me – there’s always something different going on, so I never get bored. Everyone’s always really happy to see me, and the tourism has been really exciting for the community up there. The locals make the Mail Run for the tourists, and they love having that connection with them. It’s like being a child again for me, sharing that wonderful place where I grew up.

Above. Some people live on the other side of the river, so the mail is carted across the river on a flying fox pulley system.

November this year will be four years. I’ve gotten fatter, because if I pick up stuff for people, they’ll go, “Oh, we’ve left your money in the letterbox,” and it’s a steamed pudding on a plate with cream and custard and a spoon. “Leave the plate there,” they write, so I have to eat it. I’ve kept a lot of the notes and I’m thinking I’ll do a calendar and give it to them. The Mail Run tours have just exploded. I went to everyone along the river and we put packages together for the Moutains to Sea Cycle Trail. There’s some wonderful wāhine up there working together, building that destination. There’s Zena Hough, kaitiaki at the old convent – the Sisters of Compassion in Hiruhārama Jerusalem. She takes care of the grounds, the cleaning and bookings. There’s Shantel Ranginui and Auntie Marlene who runs the cafe and cabins at Matahiwi. She makes an awesome flat white. The cafe serves delicious home baking and they’re the only barista coffee along the river. Frances Marshall runs Rivertime Accommodation where you can kickback, listen to the birdsong, watch the stars at night and savour the simple pleasures of being away from the rest of the world, surrounded by nature. All these wāhine whakapapa to the awa, that’s what makes them special. They are all tangata whenua, grow their own kai from the whenua and show so much manaakitangato our visitors. Whanganui Tours and the Mail Run is all of them, the locals aswell. Everyone is out there empowering each other.

Above. Signposts along the River Road. Tracy says, “The Mail Run tour is a half-day; the River Road cycle tours are all day. I would like people to do it over two days so they can come and stay the night up there – stars are closer, everything is better up there. I drop people at the top of the River Road and then they cycle all the way back to town.”

I entered the Te Manu Atatū Māori Business Awards, and won the Tourism Award for that. It was just fantastic because it was all my whānau – without them, I couldn’t have done it. I entered the New Zealand Tourism Awards and was a finalist. I went to those awards in Wellington. That was such a great experience, because no one from Whanganui has ever been to them. I took all my whānau from up the river. We got dressed up and it was just awesome.

I live in Whanganui, but we’ve still got our family house up the river at Koriniti. All the way along the river, I am related to the majority of people. That manaakitanga, they’ve got it everywhere up there. It’s really big whānau community. The wairua up there comes from our ancestors being there. The awa has this whole spiritual thing. Every day I drive up there, I may have to pinch myself. How lucky am I? I feel l quite privileged, because there’s not a lot of work up there. They all have to come to town, get a job, especially the females. So this is why the tourism is great. They can host and they can cook for everyone and provide accommodation.

“Historically, there’s quite a bit to see along the river – the Kawana flour mill, the tunnel culvert – we’ve got a beautiful walk in there, which is an eight-hour
walk.”

Above. “Historically, there’s quite a bit to see along the river – the Kawana flourmill, the tunnel culvert – we’ve got a beautiful walk in there, which is an eight-hour walk.”

Above. Looking down toward the Whanganui River – the longest navigable river in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Then there’s the river. It’s actually still really lovely in the winter, because everything has died back. I personally think it’s the best time of the year to go up, because it’s just too hot in the summertime. I see all the seasons; I talk to my aunties and they’ll tell me what’s going to come in and start growing and this is what happens, which is really fantastic. I want to grab all of the kaumātua up there and record them. Seeing our kaumātua every day, seeing the people up the river, that’s the best part of my day. It’s my community; they’ve all known me all my life. And we laugh! We are very Māori up there. It’s a very close community because we only have each other, but it has become really open; we’re not as isolated as we used to be when I was growing up. The roads are better, the vehicles are better, so it doesn’t take too long to get to town.

Above. The beds in the old convent at Hiruhārama Jerusalem. The two-storey convent was originally a rectangular building, with a gable roof, and housed the Sisters of Compassion from the late 1800s to the 1970s.

The rural road stretching out into the distance. “I entered in the Whanganui Heritage Awards because the Mail Run is a really old tour. It used to be done by boat. It’s something like 135 years old. So it was really nice to
be recognised for keeping it going,” Tracy says

Above. The rural road stretching out into the distance. “I entered in the Whanganui Heritage Awards because the Mail Run is a really old tour. It used to be done by boat. It’s something like 135 years old. So it was really nice to be recognised for keeping it going,” Tracy says.

Above. “In Hiruhārama, the old convent and Saint Joseph’s Church is just stunning. I think it’s probably one of the most peaceful places on earth. There’s just something about it, you can sit there for hours on end.

Above. Hills along the Whanganui River in the mist.“ Because I take tourists on the Mail Run, there’s a lot of places that are off the beaten track, that you don’t see if you’re just driving up there. The scenery is just to die for.”

Glossary. Awa, river. Kai, food. Kaitiaki, guardian, steward. Kaumātua, elders. Manaakitanga, hospitality. Tangatawhenua, people of the land. Wāhine, women. Wairua, spirit. Whakapapa, ancestry, to trace a line of ancestry to. Whānau, family. Wharenui, meeting house. Whenua, land.