A Meeting in New Zealand

In 1984 my husband and I were visiting our friends in New Zealand and had been lent their car to drive around North Island. We had been told that the Bay of Islands was worth a visit but when we tried to book a trip on the official boat we were told that it was fully booked for the one and only day we could manage. We turned and were about to drive away when we were called back to the boatyard to be told that someone had just cancelled their trip so we snapped up the chance to go out the following morning. On that boat I commented to my husband that one of the men looked like John Betjeman, with his long shorts, socks, sandals and white cotton hat. It so happened that we sat next to the same man, at lunch on the beach. In talking we found that we all came from the same area in London, we recently, but he many years before WW2. We then went on to find that this gentleman and his brother came from the same street in Brixton, South London as my husband and indeed were two of the five Jackson brothers who lived only two doors down from my husband and his family, at that time. We exchanged current addresses and wrote Christmas cards to each other for some years. As both the brothers were older than my husband who is now 89 it is not surprising that we have lost touch. However how's that for a coincidence, 12000 miles and 50 years and to meet like that.