Community Driven Solutions for Transportation in Murihiku

A lack of public transport options, age, and need have driven regional groups, organisations, and volunteers across Murihiku to ensure people can get where they need to be.

Mostly servicing members of the community needing to attend medical appointments, groups such as Let’s Link in Winton and St John throughout the region are filling the gaps.

Winton Let’s Link is an outreach service provided by five local churches who operate the local food bank, an odd-job service and transport for those who need it.

Ken Galt has been part of the Let’s Link for nearly 25 years, following in the footsteps of his father, Allan, who was on the original committee when the group was set up in the late 1980s.

A former farmer and contractor, Ken says co-ordinating this volunteer service is his reason for getting up in the morning.

“I'm a community minded person. I love volunteering.”

Let’s Link was born from need in the community and the four churches at the time banded together, seeing the need for one service rather than several smaller ones, Ken said.

With no taxi or bus services in the vibrant yet small rural town, people who needed to get places were now able to travel by using the Let’s Link team of volunteers who would take them wherever they needed to go.

16 volunteer drivers, mainly church members but also other members of the community, respond to a call from Ken, who manages bookings and co-ordinates the team.

An average of five rides a week are provided by Let’s Link, with a majority of those being used to attend medical appointments either in Winton or in Invercargill. Grocery shopping is also popular, and Ken said his volunteers have taken people to Dunedin or even to Queenstown to catch flights from the airport there.

“I once took a gentleman to go and buy some rams one day because he couldn't drive himself,” Ken said.

These rides are given for a donation of whatever the rider can afford, he said. Nobody is denied a ride because they can’t afford to pay for it and most of the time the volunteers are happy to take whatever they are given.

The volunteers donate their time as well as their own private vehicles and Let’s Link has a code of conduct which supports both drivers and passengers.

“Most of the drivers are fairly financially secure in themselves, and they're offering this service to help other people and that they don't really mind if they don't get paid.”

Most people want to make a donation if they can, so much so that Let’s Link have had to set an upper limit.

“Some people are so generous that they want to pay more than what a ride is really worth,” he said.

There is also fund available for volunteers to draw on if they want to get their expenses back, he said.

The service is very flexible, with retirees like Ken able to take an appointment at short notice or to find an available driver.

“We like to think we complement the St John shuttle service,” he said.

St John New Zealand Health Shuttle Administrator Nicki Eustace is based in Invercargill and helps to coordinate the shuttles across Southland that are available for any health-related appointment, covering anything from dentist and doctor appointments, hospital visits and even counselling appointments.

“Anybody can use the service which people need to book because the services are really, really busy,” Nicki said.

“As soon as they get an appointment, we recommend that they book so they don't miss out.”

An 0800 number takes people to a central service operator to make their bookings.

An Invercargill to Dunedin shuttle has been providing steady work for her team of volunteers for around 11 years, leaving Invercargill in the early morning and picking up people along the way, arriving in Dunedin around 10.30 and returning at 2.30pm.

Other shuttles work throughout the region, connecting services from Lumsden, Ohai, Tuatapere, Riverton and everywhere in between, including shuttles coming down from Queenstown.

There is also a service that operates within Invercargill City and Bluff, she said.“We have a lovely team of volunteers across the area that give up their time to help drive the shuttles,” she said.

The shuttle drivers work on a roster system with plenty of backup available if anyone should be unavailable, she said.

“They do a great job and give up their time to give back to the community.”

St John shuttle services are provided for a donation, with the Invercargill-Dunedin service having a suggested donation of $20 each way classed as a donation. 

“But in saying that, the way things are today a lot of people are struggling and we would never turn anybody away.”

“If people can't afford it on the day, we tell them there's other ways that they can pay, whether it's shopping at our Op Shop or they may have an ambulance subscription or on our Appeal Day.” 

Elsewhere in Murihiku, the Bluff Medical Centre has a car used by volunteer drivers to bring people to and from their appointments there if needed, and, in Te Anau, Fiordland Community House provides a volunteer shuttle service that runs from Monday to Friday for appointments in Invercargill and is used for health, Work and Income, IRD, Immigration and any other government department appointments. It can also be used for visiting relatives and friends if the shuttle is going down on that day.
Volunteers are keeping people moving in Southland, and Winton’s Ken Gault says it goes both ways.

 “My parents were very involved in community things and I've just carried on. I'm involved in quite a lot of voluntary organisations and service organisations and, being retired, it fills in my day.”

Image sourced from St Johns.