Buses, kids, Coke and Arthur

The Auckland trip ready to depart.

In the 1960s he pioneered the ‘The Auckland Trip' – a bus excursion offering his Tauranga schoolkids some exposure to the wonders of a big city.

He and his bus trips opened little eyes and changed little lives.

But now the man who drove the bus, the man who could enchant kids, the man with the shock of white hair, has gone. Arthur Edwards – schoolteacher, mentor, hobbyist beekeeper, bus driver, husband and father – died recently aged 86.

He was the man, they say, who first took the classroom out of the classroom. Literally. The teacher would pack that classroom, standard four at Tauranga Primary, into Number 35, a 40-seater bus, and drive it to Auckland for four days of adventures.

Fifteen trips over 15 years, hundreds of school kids and many, many good times, stories and memories.

'They loved him for it,” says daughter Trish Harpur. 'He gave his kids an opportunity they otherwise would never have had.”

Chugging up State Highway 2, over the Auckland Harbour Bridge, back to Sanitarium, MOTAT, the airport fire service and the like. Little life-changing experiences.

'In those days there wasn't a lot of spare cash around,” says Trish. 'It was pretty tough going for a lot of families. So Dad's bus trips made exciting places and exciting things accessible.”

And at the beginning of the school year, kids would scrambling to be in Mr Edwards' class at Tauranga Primary so they would be guaranteed a seat on ‘The Auckland Trip.' Arthur Edwards talked about ‘The Auckland Trips' in an article for the Bus and Coach Association in 2009.

'It was a very exciting and prestigious trip for Tauranga 10-year-olds, many of whom had never been far from their home town, let alone seen the likes of the Harbour Bridge, Farmers' Trading Company (including its adopted parrot Hector) or even a trolley bus.”

The kids may have been having a high time but the driver too confessed to The Auckland Trip' being perhaps his greatest bus memory.

So how did Arthur Edwards, teacher, assistant principal and acting principal end up in the driver's seat. What was it with teachers and buses?

Arthur Edwards.

'Those were the days teachers did other things,” says Trish, 'anything to raise money.” So Arthur Edwards learned to drive a bus. He would park up outside the cinemas on Friday night waiting for the eight o'clock session to come out so he could run them home. Then he would do the tourist run to the South Island during the school holidays.

And because he could hire a bus at a discounted rate and because he didn't have to pay the driver, he would do ‘The Auckland Trip' for standard four. 'Those two savings made the trip affordable and possible. I just remember everyone being incredibly excited,” says Trish.

Three pounds it would cost each kid through the 1960s and the 1970s while the good teacher was at Tauranga Primary, and later at Tauranga South which would become Gate Pa School.

'Logistically ‘The Auckland Trip' was a massive undertaking,” says Trish. Sleeping bags, blankets, Weet-Bix, bread, butter, scone mix, general groceries and spare toilet paper – enough to keep 100 schoolkids, a team of parents cum cooks cum chaperones and the schoolteacher cum bus driver provisioned for four nights in Auckland. 'But Dad was a great organiser and made it happen.”

Trish was in Dad's standard four class the year he drove up to the front door of the Coca Cola factory in Auckland. 'Imagine the excitement,” says Trish. One hundred kids loose in a fizzy drink factory. 'It probably wouldn't happen today.” And they took a carton of the sponsor's product home.

'It was put up as a prize in a classroom project competition. I was part of a group that won it and we were thinking we would get to take some of it home. But Dad made us share with the entire class. Disappointing, but that was the sort of guy he was.” A bus driver with a sense of fairness.

In his musings for the Bus and Coach Association Arthur Edwards noted they weren't constrained by the health and safety considerations in those days. They just used common sense. And the worst that happened was one girl being bitten by a monkey at Auckland Zoo.

'My companion teacher, Jim Webb, had been driving buses for over 30 years. And while at the Museum of Transport and Technology, he remarked to a guide about what it would be like to drive a double-decker.” Minutes later Jim was driving Tauranga Primary standard four and Arthur Edwards around the streets of Point Chevalier in a double decker.

'Now that definitely wouldn't be allowed today,” said Arthur.

And we are probably poorer for it.

'It was amazing being in Dad's class,” says Trish. 'He was a fantastic teacher. Everyone responded to him.” Also not a bad bus driver and a weaver of enduring memories.

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