Thursday we had to be up early as we were off to Whakatane to meet Heather who used to work with us at Launceston College. This involved a three hour drive to get there along the gorge road which is extremely beautiful. The sun shone for us and the scenery was fantastic, the road was the same we had taken to Motu and then after that it rose into the hills and the runs alongside a river through a deep gorge. The sunshine on the hills and the river which was very low and it looked as good as it possibly could have done.
After the gorge , which by the way was full of New Zealand bush, the scenery changed to open flat farmland, mainly pasture until we ended up running adjacent to the sea which was a glorious blue. We arrived in Whakatane on time and found Heather, who was sat there waiting for us. Hugs all round and then it was off to find somewhere to have lunch. Andy led the way to a cafe he knew and we ate outside enjoying the sunshine. After lunch Andy and Dally left us to go and find some bait, in the fishing shop, and we sat there chatting.
After an hour we decided that once again we should look for a dress for Raffles again and Heather leapt at the prospect of purchasing a dress for Rosemarie. The next hour was spent in and out of several dress shops before defeat was announced. All too soon it was time to head home and unfortunately we had to return to Gisborne by the same road, which offered us different perspectives of the gorge.
Back in Gisbprne we had a quick trip to Farmer's to pick up the tour manager's purchases before we returned home tired.
There is something deeply satisfying about meeting someone you have known in different surroundings on the other other side of the world, Rosemarie really enjoyed meeting Heather and she enjoyed meeting us. After the obligatory mobile phone photographs the chatter continued without respite for all the the they were together. Old friends are friends wherever they live.