Waimate’s best-dressed bus driver has made her last stop.
At the end of last term, Robin Owen ended a 37-year career as a school bus driver, safely transporting hundreds of school pupils from around the district to and from school.
For many of those years, Mrs Owen could often be found behind the wheel of the bus dressed to the nines with a floral spray pinned to her lapel.
With husband David as Waimate’s mayor for 21 years, there were formal occasions where the mayoress had to cut short her participation in events
— usually before afternoon tea was served — in order to get to school on time for the afternoon bus run, and with no time to change her clothes.
Her bus driving career began when the couple’s two sons were at primary school.
‘‘I wanted to get a job, because I had horses most of my life, and I was competing . . .I wanted a job so I could pay for things for them.
‘‘So I went along to the primary school and asked if they had any jobs, and they said ‘no, but if you get your bus licence, there’s a job going driving the bus’.’’
It would mean having school holidays off, which was appealing, but Mrs Owen was not initially convinced.
‘‘I went along to see the guy who was doing the school buses then and he said, ‘get your licence and we’ll take you on’. But I didn’t know if I wanted to drive a big long bus . . .he said, ‘you can drive a car with a horse float on it . . . you drive the front end and the back end follows’.’’
Mrs Owen took up the challenge and that sage advice still rings in her ears nearly 40 years later.
Firstly employed by the Education Board, she was driving an old New Zealand Railways bus. There was no power steering, air conditioning involved opening windows to let in even more dust, and the motor was right up the front next to her
— it was a noisy experience.
Over the years, her employers changed as different companies took over the school bus contract.
The buses changed too, from big 40-seaters, to smaller 25-seat versions, and became more modern as the years went by, her last was an automatic.
‘‘In the early days, I had one that I had to double clutch for every gear change, up and down.’’
Her day would start at 5.45am, giving her her time to get up and ready and have breakfast before she arrived at the bus depot at 7am. By 9am, she would have clocked off for the morning, after sweeping out the bus and cleaning up any messes.
She would head out again about 2.30pm for the afternoon run, and be home by about 4.30pm.
‘‘And then I got sick of doing the whole thing after a number of years so I just did the morning, and did some part-time work at the library during the day.’’
She picked up the afternoon runs again about 10years ago. At times, that afternoon run proved a challenge, cutting short trips to Timaru and other events.
‘‘When David was mayor, I had to go with him to a few things, and if I didn’t get a relief driver, I’d be dressed up, have a floral spray on my lapel, and I’d have to slide out and do the bus run . . . and usually miss afternoon tea.’’
Covering a variety of runs over the years, she has encountered shingle roads, wing mirror-snatching trees, and snow.
‘‘One morning, I got halfway up Tara Hill. It wasn’t snowing at the bottom but it got heavier and heavier. And then I must have missed a gear change because the bus stopped and I couldn’t get it going again.’’
Mrs Owen walked up the road to the nearest farm house and phoned her husband to come pick her up. The farmer took her down the road on a quad bike, she was duly collected, and the bus remained stuck for the next few days.
A bus-load of school children sometimes posed its challenges.
‘‘ I used to sometimes take my hearing aids out and turn the radio up a bit.’’
She had a trick to settle her passengers down on a noisy afternoon; stopping the bus and pulling out her book. When the children eventually realised the bus was not moving, they would figure out that they needed to quiet down to get the bus moving again.
‘‘And when it erupted again, I’d start slowing down and they’d all be quiet!’’
A thank you card shows how long Mrs Owen has been the bus driver. Childish writing from a recent passenger, along with an extra note from her mum — apassenger from earlier years.
She enjoyed the driving; changing gears and manoeuvring a big machine around hills and corners.
‘‘That’s why I loved the Waihaorunga run.’’
Mrs Owen is enjoying not having to get up so early in the morning and being able to plan a day in Timaru without the time constraints of the afternoon run.
‘‘But I’ve loved it, I’ve really enjoyed the challenge of driving.’’
