My Account
An era in public transport in the Mahurangi region has come to an end with the recent sale of Gubbs buses to Go Bus.
Although owners Kevin and Robyn Jones will continue to operate Gubbs Motors at their Hudson Road depot, the iconic green and orange Gubbs colours will soon disappear from local roads.
For more than a century, the Gubbs’ services have been an integral part of Warkworth’s growth and development – keeping isolated settlements connected through its mail, newspaper and freight deliveries, and passenger services. At the time of sale, there were 33 buses in the fleet, servicing schoolchildren from Pakiri, Leigh, Ahuroa, PŪhoi and areas around Warkworth, as well as doing charter trips.
“This is a family-run company and some of the drivers have been with us for 30-odd years,” Kevin says. “It wasn’t an easy decision to sell, but it was time.”
The Gubbs Motors story starts in 1903 with Clifford Carlyle Gubbs, an early farmer in the Hoteo. As a young man, he carried the mail on horseback from Port Albert to Tauhoa, Kaipara Flats, Wharehine and Warkworth. Later, he provided the service using a horse and buggy, and then a coach pulled by a team of horses.
Cliff’s son Stan started a taxi service around the Hoteo with a Ford and then a Hupmobile, and when the family moved to Kaipara Flats to set up an accommodation house, the taxi business grew. Kaipara Flats was a busy settlement in those days, as it was the terminus of the North Auckland rail line.
By 1926, Gubbs was running a passenger service between Kaipara Flats, Warkworth and Matakana using a seven-seater Hudson. Matakana was an important timber, dairying and kauri gum district with a regular steamer service to Auckland.
As the business grew, the first bus, an American made Reo, was put into service and an early driver was Tom Ramsbottom. Around this time, the family decided to start a regular passenger run between Warkworth and the vehicle ferry in Devonport, using the Hudson. Cliff’s son Frank described the road south of Warkworth as metalled as far as Woodcocks Road Junction, and then largely clay until the outskirts of Milford. The Waiwera Hill was particularly difficult with its s-bends being impossible to negotiate on “one lock” with the Hudson.
By 1928, Gubbs was advertising a weekly service “weather permitting” and by 1930, the service was operating seven days a week. The fare from Auckland to Warkworth was 10 shillings and sixpence, or 12 shillings and sixpence to Matakana, “strictly cash only”.
By 1931, the road had been metalled and the service had extended to Leigh. For a time, this service deviated three times a week to Sandspit (known then as Lower Matakana) and Point Wells. At Sandspit, the Gubbs coaches connected with the launch service to Kawau Island.
In March 1934, the company Gubbs Motors Ltd was formed with a registered office in Queens Street Warkworth. The shareholders were Cliff and his sons Frank, Stan and Ivan. The company was then a White Star operator.
By 1941, Gubbs was running its own launch to Kawau, the Nancy Belle. Launchmen included Tui Brooker, Dave Trotter and Bob Edwards.
As well as the service to Auckland, Gubbs buses were taking children to school and were sometimes pressed into service for emergencies, as there was still no ambulance service. They were also used to ferry people to dances, football matches and on hockey trips
There was also plenty of opposition from competing bus companies and, at one stage, there were five daily return services between Warkworth and Auckland.
With the gradual improvement in roads and increase in patronage, larger vehicles were introduced, the ferry and taxi services were sold, and a rental car operation started.
The Gubbs family connection ended in 1976 when the company was sold to Peter and Pixie Jones. The business was further expanded and Peter’s nephew Kevin joined the company as an apprentice when he was 15.
Over the decades, the buses and their drivers faced their fair share of slips and floods, and occasional near-misses. Once, when the Puhoi bridge washed out, they had to ferry their passengers in a punt from one side of the river to the other, where a second bus was waiting to take them on the rest of their journey. Services were curtailed during World War II due to petrol rationing, but buses were still kept busy ferrying American soldiers camped in the area to Auckland.
Long-serving drivers included Trevor Gravatt, Ron Brockman, Jim Broadhurst, Ron Barrett, Alun Brunton, Bob Davies, Murray Multrus, Hugh Tomlinson and Les Yearbury. Bob Davies, Frank and Ivan Gubb, and Trevor Gravatt were proud members of the Gubb Million Mile Club in 1976.
By the 1990s, the service right through to Auckland had been discontinued.
Clifford Gubb died in Auckland in 1979, one month shy of his 100th birthday.
Information courtesy of The Omnibus Bulletin, Papers Past, and Kevin and Robyn Jones.
When Mahurangi Matters asked people via social media to share their memories of travelling on Gubbs, the responses came thick and fast. Here’s a sample of just a few of the stories that were shared …
“I remember walking from the local dentist to drop parcels off with moulds to go on the bus to Auckland city to a denture lab.”
“Gubbs Motors (Peter Jones and Peter Butler) drove the Mahurangi College 5th form geography trip coaches the length of NZ for years and participated in those trips not just as drivers but also as friends to us all. Will never forget those days.”
“We had staff trips away, with a memorable one heading down to Okoroiri for a golfing weekend. Peter B drove the bus around a Hamilton roundabout three times with the bus taking on a hell of a lean and everyone on board laughing hysterically. So many memories.”
“Remember the old Bedford school buses well. Not much padding in them seats!”
“Mr Maddox was the best driver all my kids loved him and we still remember him fondly to this day.”
Herb Tucker was the main driver out Mahurangi East Road when I was at school. On the odd occasion the bus broke down, we’d just get off and walk home. Anyone acting up was put off the bus to walk home!
For one of my Brownie badges, I had to memorise the Gubbs Weekly Timetable including departure times and destinations.
Go Bus can trace its origins to a handful of businesses that started in the Waikato in the 1930s, and amalgamated in the 1990s under the Go Bus brand. Today, the company is owned by the Kinetic Group, based in Australia. It claims to be New Zealand’s largest passenger service operator, with more than 2000 vehicles delivering school, charter and urban services from Kaitaia to Invercargill.
