Ports and post codes

[vilakins]

I just saw on teletext (TV text news) that NZ is building a new prison in Port Vila. :-P Apparently the two existing ones are "on their last legs". I think Vila would prefer them that way. For that matter, he'd also rather it was the other sort of port that was named after him

Comments

[kalypso_v]

Oh yes, I saw a news story about that, though they told it as if you hadn't had a postcode system at all. But if you're just changing two digits, it sounds as if it's merely being refined, probably a bit like when Germany changed it after reunification. It is annoying having to change stationery, though. They changed our city postcodes very slightly - my then address went from 9GU to 3GU - just after I'd moved back, and had had both personal and professional letterheads done. I just tippexed the number out until I'd used them up.

[trixieleitz]

...they told it as if you hadn't had a postcode system at all.

Our old one was the same for the entire city (pop. about 200k). Our new one covers several suburbs, so it doesn't narrow things down all that much. It probably refers to one postie nest or something.

[kalypso_v]

I'm pretty exclusive, because my postcode is just for me and the telephone exchange next door (which occupies several house numbers)! Usually they cover several houses - which is still pretty useful if you're looking up an address on one of those street-map websites.

Yes, I seem to remember the German change was something similar. I don't have my sister's old code to hand, but from memory it was something like 69000 and it became 69121.

And I do remember when our postcode was just M20. Roland Watson, who lived just down the road from here, reels that off as part of his address in Elidor (published 1965). The more detailed code must have come in between then and 1973, because I remember my birth-house was 0BJ and that was when we moved.

[vilakins]

I remember London having postcodes like SW1, so that they were referred to almost as areas in books I read.

[trixieleitz]

... still pretty useful if you're looking up an address on one of those street-map websites.

Yes, I particularly liked that feature.

[vilakins]

Really, you had just one?

1005 was several eastern suburbs, quite a large area, but now each suburb seems to have at least one postcode of its own. Also, the first digit relates to 'cities' within Auckland, so 0 is North Shore, 1 is Auckland, 2 is Manukau. That should (I hope) stop the occasional mail we get for a similarly-named street on the North Shore.

[trixieleitz]

Really, you had just one?

Yeah! Before we went overseas, we didn't have one at all. (Aye, and we had to walk two miles to school, each way, in t'snow, uphill both ways....)

[vilakins]

But... not even one small, tiny, thin, modest little digit? I used to be Auckland 5.

And now I've lost all vestiges of 5-ness. :-(

[trixieleitz]

There might have been a digit, but I'm not sure, and I certainly can't remember what it was. So we probably never used it.

I do have a vague memory of my parent's address in Christchurch having a 3.

[linda_joyce]

As far as I know the only places that post codes before the early 70s were in London, you know W1 etc. There are two Hill streets with in a mile of each other here and we were for ever redirecting mail to each other pre postcode because the writer had failed to put in Chapel of Ease or the sorter didn't know about the two streets. That was just irritating, it was when an ambulance turned up here instead of the other Hill Street that it became dangerous.

[reapermum]

Birmingham had them as well. We were Smethwick 40 and the other end was Smethwick 41.

[linda_joyce]

I suspected the biggest cities might have something but not the smaller towns and villages.

[vilakins]

Even with postcodes, we'll still get the occasional letter addressed to another number 9 in the area. We got one for 9 Lush Avenue the other day.

Lush Avenue is just over the hill, and is where a car with the number plate CALLY used to park. I kept intending to park LIBR8R beside it and take a picture but I haven't seen it for ages. I parked right by BLAKE in Mission Bay last year, but didn't have my camera. :-(

[linda_joyce]

Even with postcodes, we'll still get the occasional letter addressed to another number 9 in the area

Ah the dyslexic postman gets around. We have one who can read numbers but not letters, the appropriate numbers on the Hill get the letters for all the other streets that have those numbers in.

[vilakins]

We've had postcodes for as long as I can remember, but a lot of people never bothered to use them. Originally this area was just Auckland 5, then it was 1005 (the 1 being Auckland), but they've now refined it so that codes cover much smaller areas. The PO has an excellent website where you can find the new code for any address, and I do hope they make them compulsory because mail delivery will be a lot more accurate.

Yes, I really should amend my address stickers and use them up.

[kerravonsen]

Hey, I used to live in Auckland 5 back in 1972! Back then I walked past a sheep paddock on the way to school, so I assume it's changed a great deal since then... 8-)