Tekapo makes postal call

Tekapo residents are becoming increasingly frustrated with the township being labelled a rural delivery zone, meaning they are hit with additional delivery fees and often have make time to collect their mail from the post shop.

The tourist town’s population in the Mackenzie District of South Canterbury increased to 558 in the 2018 Census, a 55 per cent jump from 2013, according to the latest data available, but still remains within the same postal/ postcode region as Aoraki/ Mt Cook village – 105 kilometres away – properties north of Lake Tekapo and those south of Lake Benmore, also close to 100km away.

‘‘Lake Tekapo’s local post shop and courier depot, Kiwi Treasures, is in the middle of the town ... when we use [NZ Post’s] postcode finder it cannot find this address or gives it as a rural address,’’ resident and business owner Stephen Hunter said.

‘‘As it is the centre of town, it should not be classed as rural but it is because all courier fees are based on the postcode finder.

‘‘This causes constant grief for people buying over the internet with vendors insisting on rural charges.’’ He said the rural fees also applied to residential properties within Tekapo township.

‘‘We are but 200 metres from the post office shop (Kiwi Treasures), in the oldest part of the town on residential zone 1 land. The postcode finder also insists this is rural, and it really irks the residents with the constant problems that crop up as to residential or rural charges for

courier delivery.’’ Hunter shared his conversation with NZ Post on social media and quickly picked up support from other residents, including Mackenzie mayor Graham Smith who said it was time the company looked into the situation. ‘‘Tekapo is a very quickly growing town and a lot of mail goes there, so they need to review that, I would support any review,’’ Smith told Stuff.

‘‘There are 600 permanent residents thereabouts now which classifies it as a small town. It is not a rural area, it is a town,’’ Smith said.

Hunter was particularly frustrated that neighbouring towns Fairlie (population 885) and Twizel (1455) do not fall into rural delivery areas but NZ Post said rural areas were reviewed as density increased, although it would not say what the threshold was.

The postcode finder states a Tekapo postcode search does not relate to a postal address and directs users towards using a PO Box, a collection point or signing up to rural delivery.

An NZ Post spokesperson said postcodes and rural/urban boundaries areas were linked to geographic location and the cost to serve that area.

‘‘NZ Post has a rural surcharge for parcels delivered to rural areas to help with the network costs we have in delivering to the 250,000 delivery points in the rural network,’’ they said.

‘‘The rural surcharge is the same for every rural delivery area.’’

Those in rural areas must sign up to the rural delivery service, which they will only be accepted for if the property lies on an existing rural delivery round, and then need to fill out an additional form to redirect mail there.

‘‘Where an address within a rural mailtown is not on a rural delivery contractor round, the residents at that address can either use free counter delivery or, if they qualify, a free PO Box,’’ the spokesperson said.

This means residents are still charged a rural delivery fee but the items will be sent to the Tekapo post shop for collection.

‘‘There are 600 permanent residents thereabouts now which classifies it as a small town.’’ Graham Smith Mackenzie mayor