Mrs Gard, who has been driving school buses for more than 30 years, retires today from doing the Cattle Creek bus run to Waitaki Valley School in Kurow.
She has 16 children to pick up and deliver home and it was "like a family", with the children calling her Indy.
She had the distinction of also taking some of their fathers to school.
Mrs Gard, who is in her 60s, says they are a "great bunch" of country children and she will miss them very much.
She knew all the "gossip" on the bus as the children chatted all the way.
"I've said to the kids, if they see me on the street to come along and say hello and I know they will. They are that type of kids," she said.
Mrs Gard and her husband, Neville, were living at Taihoa Station at Cattle Creek when Jim Small asked if she would like to drive the Cattle Creek School bus.
She took Mr Small's son Nat to school and was now taking Nat's son George.
She got her licence and drove the Cattle Creek School bus for 14 years.
It was a long run and more like a taxi service, she said, laughing, yesterday.
When the Gards moved to Papakaio, she did relief bus driving and, when the couple returned to Kurow, she did the Mt Parker run, down the Waimate side.
She has been doing the 36km run from Cattle Creek to Kurow since the Cattle Creek School closed in 2004, driving for Pearsons Coachlines.
She was full of praise for her boss, Murray Pearson, who was "awesome", she said.
She has driven in all conditions - snow, wind and rain - and never had an accident.
She never tired of the trip up the Hakataramea Valley and if farmers were out shifting sheep, she would stop and have a chat.
If there were only a few children on the bus, she had been known to stop and buy them all an ice-cream.
Mrs Gard, who has always been surrounded by children, will continue caring for Matt and Julie Ross's three children, twins Alexa and Liam, who turn 1 this week, and Abby (4), at Duntroon.
