When Linda Pennock booked into her accommodation in Cambridge at the weekend, the first thing she wanted to do was reunite with her old friend Diane Peach who she lost contact with 50 years ago.
Diane Peach, left and Linda Pennock at a Cambridge Town Hall dance in the 1970s. Photo: Supplied.
Linda had travelled over from Bury St Edmonds in Suffolk, England with an old photo from a dance they attended at Cambridge Town Hall and letters Diane had sent her in the 1970s.
When she booked the Karāpiro Airbnb for her trip from the UK, she saw it was owned by Grant and Diane.
“Coincidentally my best friend from school in Cambridge was named Diane and I knew she had married Grant.
“I sent a message to ask if she was the Diane I went to school with. As my name is unchanged, the response came back … yes,” said Linda.
And after 50 years, the two women, both now 66 – who had been best friends and lived opposite each other at Karāpiro Hydro where their fathers worked – were reunited.
Linda was born in England and came to Cambridge with her family in the early 1960s.
She and Diane quickly became friends and in their spare time enjoyed walking across the Karāpiro dam, riding the lift inside it and climbing the stairs back to the village.
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Cycling down State Highway 1 to Horahora and back on Maungatautari Road, or into Cambridge was a regular weekend activity.
“We didn’t wear helmets, bikes didn’t have gears or drink holders. When we were thirsty, we would knock on a house door and ask for water,” says Diane.
They not only got water but cake and other goodies too.
Sadly, for their friendship which had endured from Karāpiro Hydro Primary School through to Cambridge Intermediate and then Cambridge High, Linda, her sisters and parents returned to the United Kingdom in 1973, the girls’ fifth form year.
They kept writing to each other but lost contact, until the weekend.
“I was so excited at reconnecting and retrieved the letters she had sent, including an invitation to her and Grant’s wedding, and even the tin in which she had sent a slice of her wedding cake,” said Linda who retired from teaching in August and travelled to New Zealand to visit her sister Susan in Dunedin.
She decided to do a road trip of the North Island as well and to revisit her old stomping ground in Karāpiro.
Both are astounded at the pure luck and coincidence that enabled them to meet again after 50 years in the district of their childhood and are determined to keep in touch and catch up on years of missed opportunities.
Diane Pevreal, left, and Linda Pennock at Karāpiro. Photo: Supplied.
