Being a taxi driver, Peter Combes hears plenty of great yarns. But having just retired after 43 years in the same job, it’s fair to say he’s got plenty of his own to tell too.
When he first started at Nelson Taxis the industry was regulated and the Government restricted the number of taxis in each area. There were 27 in Nelson, one in Stoke and three in Richmond. Nowadays there are more than double that.
Peter — who lives in a motorhome and is already planning to spend most of his retirement fishing — is a reserved man. But even he chirps up when he recalls the story of his longest fare. “I started at six in the morning. Some seamen got in touch with me at midday to go to Lyttelton. They used to fly them but the weather was bad so they’d pay for them to catch a taxi. I got there to Lyttelton, they were catching a ferry, and as they got out another guy yells out from up on the boat ‘is that a Nelson taxi? Next thing, this guy comes running down the gangway and told me to take him to Nelson. Nobody else has ever done that. That would cost you a couple of grand now.”
But he’s had his fair share of runners and other bizarre experiences.
“There were two guys who wanted to go to Richmond and they were whispering to each other so I knew what was going to happen. We got to the corner where Raeward Fresh is now and they said ‘oh this will do us’, and the guy at the back ran out. The guy in the front did it too, but I grabbed him at the same time. I said ‘you’re not going anywhere’, and then he tells me he’s got no money. But I said ‘I don’t care, I’m not letting you out.’ I stuck my head out the window and said to the other guy ‘you can pick your mate up from the police station’. He came across with the money then.”
Peter says he’s now looking forward to getting into some whitebaiting and scalloping.
