Is receiving mail in our letterboxes almost as dead as the dodo?

 

Hi there

I figure that any day now we will be throwing our letter boxes out onto the firewood pile.  Or tie them onto tree branches to be used as bird boxes.  Or use them as some weird version of table-top Beer Pong-

"Hey, come on mate, s'easy.  See those letter boxes on the table?  How many ping pong balls can you get through the slots.  Every winner gets to chug down a litre of Tui's finest..."

I say this about maiboxes being almost as dead as the dodo because I speak (write?) from the heart.  Take it from one who knows.-

I went for over two months without getting any mail and never even noticed.  

Before I went on holiday last February I trotted down to a post shop agent.  I filled out the post shop form, handed it over -

"I'd like you to hold my mail for 10 days please.  And here's my SuperGold Card so as I get the service for free..."

It was all done and dusted in a trice.  The guy at the counter checked my filled-in form, checked my SuperGold card (I had my photo on the card, so he knew I wasn't a fraudster pensioner).

I went on holiday, happy that there would be no mail spilling out from my letterbox on my return.

I got back on the day that all the mail was to be delivered.  There wasn't so much as a letter from a real estate agent wanting me to sell my house.  Goodness, I couldn't have had any mail whilst I was away...

And then ....  I forgot about NZ Post mail and letterboxes.  For two months. Oh yes, I even watched the postie on his bicycle ride past my window on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, my official delivery days.  

And I was actually getting some mail, all of which was delivered to my box by private courier.  But nothing, I repeat nothing from NZ Post.  Only I didn't realise this until last week when I received a  bundle of mail (14 letters), accompanied by a note from someone at the mail centre telling me that they had forgotten all about me, forgotten to re-start my mail delivery.  For more than two months my mail had been piling up in some NZ Post pigeon hole.

To be fair, the person who had made the mistake included a heartfelt handwritten note in with my mail.  They apologised profusely. 

I did have to spend an afternoon ringing up some businesses explaining the situation and the delay in my answering their mail.  Luckily only three pieces of mail out of the 14 envelopes held anything of real importance that I had to chase up on.

Looking back, it does mortify me that over a two and a half month period, I only received 14 pieces of mail.  My goodness, was I not popular?  No, but the whole episode did make me realise that our NZ Post dodo is most definitely on its last legs...