It's a small world

I was newly retired from my position as Medical Secretary at a GP Practice in a small town in the South West of England. In November, 2007, my husband and I travelled to New Zealand where we hired a motorhome in order to see as much of the country as possible in the three weeks we had allowed. We had a wonderful time, went to magical places and enjoyed the relaxing mode of travel. However, we hadn't taken into account the vast size of the country and, not wanting to spoil our trip by rushing, only managed to cover the North Island but promised ourselves we would return at a later date and tour South Island. We sadly handed over the motorhome and spent our last night at an airport hotel in Auckland. Transport had been arranged to take us to the airport in the morning to catch our flight. The next morning, there were a lot of people waiting for the transit coach in the Hotel Forecourt and we found ourselves standing alongside another couple with whom we exchanged pleasantries. The man asked if we were starting our holiday and we replied that we were at the end of a very nice visit to New Zealand and were going home to the UK via Hong Kong. I then asked if they were also visitors to New Zealand. The man replied "No, we are from New Zealand but live on South Island, in a place called Dunedin. We flew down yesterday to stay the night in the Hotel before catching our flight from Auckland to Fiji for a holiday". I then told him that one of the GP partners I had worked for (whose christian name I mentioned at this stage) had emigrated to New Zealand just over two years ago with his wife and two teenage children and lived in Dunedin. To our complete surprise, the man then told me the GP's wife's name, the name of his children, that the wife had been in New Zealand on a secondment for a year prior to the family emigrating. He also told me she had since been promoted and she was now his boss and he now held the position she had held previously! "Are we talking about the same family?" he asked. He was, he really was, so yes, it is a small world. I would like to say we have since returned to New Zealand to continue our travels but sadly we haven't.