Six year gap

In June/July 2005 my husband and I did the full 6 weeks of the British & Irish Lions tour to New Zealand. Our group had a lot of coach transfers between matches (from one particular company) and on excursions, and whenever we were in the North Island we had the same coach driver (for about 4 of the 6 weeks). Eugene was excellent; very knowledgable about everywhere we went and in comparison with our driver on the South Island and others we heard about from other tour groups, we seemed to have the best one. He always wore a distinctive hat in the sunshine. In November 2011 we went back to New Zealand for the last 3 weeks of the Rugby World Cup. Much less coach travel on this journey, only between Airports and hotels, and one trip up to the Bay of Islands from Auckland. We had several different drivers (from the same company as 2005) and the driver to the Bay of Islands didn't seem to know the way and chose an unsuitable place to stop off on the way for refreshments and our companions complained about him. I had joked that what we needed was Eugene from our 2005 trip. For the journey back from Bay of Islands we expected the same driver, but in the end different coach company was used. As he loaded our luggage onto the coach, I noticed the hat being worn by the driver. As he stood up, I asked "Would that be Eugene under that hat?" He looked up and said "Yes", how did you know?", to which I replied "Epic 5 Tour, 2005". He couldn't believe I'd remembered him. When we left New Zealand we were collected by the original coach company for transfer to the Airport but, after having checked in, who should we bump into but Eugene on his way to collect another group. He explained that he was freelance. I know that there are only about 4 million people in NZ so the chances of meeting him again were higher, but I still find this a great coincidence.