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Story: Coaches and long-distance buses

Muddy roads

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Muddy roads

In the old coaching days, the roads could be bad – when they existed at all. After rainy weather, coaches often became bogged down in the mud – like this one on the East Coast road between Waipiro Bay and Gisborne, probably in the 1880s.

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Alexander Turnbull Library

Reference: 1/1-019596; F

Permission of the Alexander Turnbull Library, National Library of New Zealand, Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa, must be obtained before any re-use of this image.

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How to cite this page

Jane Tolerton, Coaches and long-distance buses – Coach travel, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/photograph/20921/muddy-roads (accessed 4 June 2026).

Story by Jane Tolerton, published 6 April 2010.