Pauline Ahuriri will sort the mail for the last time on Saturday

Pauline Ahuriri is retiring after 17 years sorting mail in Te Puke and almost a lifetime working for the post office.

She's a familiar face to some - but not to everyone who uses Te Puke's postal services.

Apart from the odd stint on the Post Shop counter - and when it was there, the Kiwibank service - Pauline Ahuriri has largely stayed out of the limelight at Te Puke Post office.

Pauline is the person who sorts the mail and puts it in the right PO box ready for collection - but will do that for the last time on Saturday when she retires.

These days she is far less busy than she used to be.

"I used to get trays and trays of mail and used to start at six in the morning and finish at 11 - now I start at 8 o'clock and finish at 10.

"The mail has gone down and the price has gone up - when I first started it was 4c to send a letter, now it's $1.70."

In busier times she would sort the mail for the rural delivery runs and the town posties - now that is all done in Pāpāmoa.

She says the busiest time - Christmas - just isn't the same anymore.

"Christmas time was the best - we just worked full on and we just did our job to get over Christmas."

But now mail volumes just aren't the same.

"I've seen it dwindle down from a full flood more or less to a little trickle. I miss being busy but the mail's not there."

In contrast, the number of parcels has increased massively - although much of that traffic is handled by couriers.

Despite being mostly in the back room at the post office, Pauline does get to meet customers.

"It's mainly the people who use the PO boxes - they come on a regular basis and sometimes if they've got a bit of time to talk, they'll ring the bell and have a bit of a natter - then they grab all their stuff and away they go."

Even there, there has been a reduction with around 200 fewer boxes than there used to be.

Pauline has spent almost 50 years working for the post office and NZ Post - initially in telephone exchanges in Gisborne, then Taranaki. When she and her husband George returned to Gisborne, she started work in the mail room - a job she has done, apart from a brief time working in kiwifruit, ever since.

George too has spent much of his working life employed by the post office - and at one point was the country's youngest postmaster.

The couple moved to Te Puke to find work, and shortly afterwards, after her kiwifruit stint - which wasn't her cup of tea - Pauline found a job at the sorting office in Tauranga before getting the job in Te Puke.

She has had plenty of opportunities to broaden her skill set.

"I used to be one of those quiet people who would sit in the corner and not say anything but they sent you out on confidence-building seminars and meetings.

"They even put me through my forklift licence and my boss bought me a pair of steel capped boots and said get out there and learn how to drive a forklift.

"They didn't just say 'you are just going to do mail', they pushed you in other areas as well and that's why I am the way I am today - otherwise I'd still be in the corner saying nothing."

Pauline says the move to Te Puke was the best thing she and George ever did.

"The last 17 or 18 years have been the best because this area has such good people, nice people."

In 2018 there was unease and concern at the post office when the Kiwibank service closed and there was talk of the Post Shop going the same way.

Now the Post Shop shares the building with Sunny's.

"I thought it would be a bit them and us, but it wasn't like that at all - it was us all working together so we can all keep our jobs and still provide the community with a Post Shop rather than lose it altogether."

Pauline says she has a "big stack of stuff I have saved up over the last 20 years" to do once she retires.

She will also update the family tree and catch up in person with people she normally only talks to on the phone.

"My husband and I are going to spend more time together because we've always been like ships in the night."