Colourful tales from what was the hub of a Far North town for more than a century are in a new book.
In Praise of Our Post Office, by Whangaroa writer Fiona Craig, tells the story of the 102-year-old building's past life as a post office and telephone exchange. It is now the Far North District Council's Kaeo customer service centre and library.
Craig told a packed Kaeo Library at the book's launch earlier this month her interviews with former post office and exchange employees made entertaining reading.
Subscribers were so awed when the telegraph first came to Whangaroa they sang songs to one another down the line. A former worker recalled wind gusts in a storm once sucked away a lineman's false teeth as he barked orders to workmates restoring power. Postal staff remembered handling unusual items including a box of bees and a wooden leg.
Craig also discovered Whangaroa once had 14 post offices dotted around the hills, often the only means of communication for isolated folk.