During my first day back to civilization on Sunday after my Milford Track experience, I went to the visitor center in Te Anau, New Zealand. I ordered a ticket, but the woman at the counter forgot to hand it to me and not until a few minutes later did I realize that.

When I went back to the counter for my ticket, Christine Tran, who had befriended me on the Milford Track, was standing there. Christine is an Aussie, having lived in Australia with her parents since she was six years old, when they escaped from North Vietnam on a boat that took them first to Hong Kong.

My Friend Christine Tran

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I had wondered if I would ever see this loving woman again, and this wasn’t even the last time, because she immediately invited me out to dinner that evening with her partner Steve Longhurst.

My Friend Steve Longhurst

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Steve was waiting in their rented car out in front of the building and happened to be talking with a couple who had hiked the Milford Track at the same time. That woman, Linley, had fallen on the third day of the hike, torn a tendon or ligament, and had to be airlifted out. This was no easy hike.

At dinner Christine and Steve insisted on making me their guest. I enjoyed yet another delicious New Zealand seafood selection, monkfish. We swapped stories of our experiences for two hours and parted in hopes of seeing each other again either in Colorado or Australia.

New Zealand, with its small population of 4 million people, is a place where you can run into the same people in different places. But I know that this is truly a small world from yet another experience.

A week or so ago at the Royal Albatross Center on the Otego Peninsula I met a woman who lives in the same small city, Boulder, Colorado, where I live. She is a musician named Laurie Dameron, who I had not met in Boulder.

Laurie Dameron from Boulder in New Zealand

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Then, yesterday morning while I was waiting for my breakfast to be served, I picked up a local newspaper and saw this article about Laurie.

Newspaper Article about Laurie

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Who doubts that this is a small world? Not me.