The most awesome, wicked super cool story ever.

I got up this morning and basically managed to drag myself downstairs to the big communal area of the hostel.  Well, I was still bleary eyed and as I walked in there was a girl drinking tea, reading a magazine and she had long dark hair.  I couldn't really see her face apart from the bleary eyed-ness but when I blinked again I was like, 'Oh my god, is that Gemma*?' and so I blinked again and it was definitely her.  So I just blurted out, 'Oh.  My.  God.'  And she looked up and said, 'Oh.  My.  God.'  I repeated this, then she did, then I did, then she did, then there were a few seconds of silence, then I repeated it again, then she said, 'I don't know what else to say.  Oh.  My.  God.'

Well, I knew that Gemma was travelling but as far as I knew she was like up in the east coast of Australia and she didn't know that I was in Auckland at all, I don't know where she thought I was but anyway I sat down and we started talking and I was telling her about the hostel and stuff and then we sat and talked for like five hours and I introduced her to the crew and invited her to join us for dinner.  The funniest thing was every so often just stopping the conversation and repeating our disbelief that we had bumped into each other here in Auckland.

It really makes me believe that things happen for a reason and bumping into her is absolute proof of this.  Of course I had to tell everyone that this was my friend from Bristol and that it was complete coincidence, blah, blah, blah.  It's really very, very bizarre to have bumped into her but it's also very, very cool.  Cos she's ace and because it's wonderful to see somebody you know, regardless of how bizarre the circumstances are.

*OK, for those of you who don't know (most people), Gemma is a girl I worked with for a really short while not long after I first moved to Bristol and we always got on really well and saw each other sporadically for dinner etc because she's really good company and so she was going travelling but going through America first and my plans hadn't been firmly settled when I left and what with not having been in Australia I hadn't yet emailed her to get her geographical location and possibly meet up with her but anyway, moot point, because I've now met up with her anyway.  Awesome.