Remember the old red telephone box? They used to be everywhere and taken for granted, but they’ve now been relegated to history and virtually forgotten – except on Moturoa/Rabbit Island.
The old red phone box, sitting outside the old caretaker’s house on the island, has been given a facelift with a lick of bright “New Zealand Post Office” red paint.
The public phone in the box used to be the only contact with the outside world 50 years ago, at a time when you could only cross the causeway to Moturoa/Rabbit Island either side of high tide.
Some may have memories of racing out to the phone box to call an ambulance when that cousin, who always did something dumb, broke their leg playing bullrush at the family’s New Year’s Day barbecue.
But, with a cellphone now in everyone’s pocket, the old public phone became outmoded and was decommissioned years ago, although the phone is still in the box.
So, in the interest of preserving a small slice of local history, our Reserves Team decided to give the old box a bit of a spruce-up with a repaint.
The old box has taken on a new lease of life by becoming a popular choice as a backdrop for wedding photos.