Old friends reunited after 47 years
Published: January 20, 2006
If laughter is the best medicine then Ken Rees and Bruce Peterson must be two of the healthiest men alive.
Theirs is a friendship which has spanned several decades, at least two countries and has included among other things a lot of laughs. The two men have now been reunited after 47 years and plan not to lose touch again.
The pair met in 1956 in Christchurch. Mr Peterson was a member of the United States Navy and his ship had docked at Lyttelton to refuel after returning from Antarctica.
He had decided to jump ship for a while and see what the area had to offer so he headed off to the local motorcycle track, which was in Aranui at the time.
After missing the last bus back to Lyttelton, Mr Peterson decided to hitchhike and was picked up by Mr Rees and his family, who were also travelling back from the motorcycle track where Mr Rees had been competing.
They have been friends ever since and regularly saw each other when Mr Peterson’s ship docked in Lyttelton to refuel. His last trip to New Zealand was in about 1959.
Over the next decade or so the men kept in touch through their mothers, who had struck up a friendship. However when Mr Peterson’s mother died in 1977, the pair lost touch.
Despite no communication for more than 20 years, the men never forgot about each other and would regularly pull out old photos and reminisce about the good old times with their families.
A few years ago, Mr Rees, who lives in Mt Somers, enlisted the help of his son to help him search for Mr Peterson on the internet. After looking up Montana and addresses, he typed in Bruce Peterson and got eight hits, narrowing it down to two by looking at a hanky he had with a map of the Montana area.
After calling the first number he hit the jackpot. Mr Peterson’s wife, Evelyn, answered the phone and immediately knew it was New Zealand calling!
“I couldn’t wait for him to come home to tell him,” she remembers.
What followed was a few years of e-mails and phone calls, with the men calling each other once a month, before a snap decision saw Mr and Mrs Peterson make the trip to New Zealand with their daughter Michelle. She is in the airforce and stationed in Hawaii so the pair decided to make a round trip and will be stopping in Hawaii again on the way home.
Since being in New Zealand, they have visited Christchurch to see Cathedral Square, Timaru, Geraldine, Waimate (to see wallabies) and today they head to Lyttelton so Mr Peterson can see how much the area has changed. The couple have also tried wild pig, lamb and venison and spent many late nights catching up on the years they have missed.
“The highlight of the trip has been catching up,” Mr Peterson said.
Mr Peterson also made a trip to see Mr Rees’ cousin who was three years old when he last saw her. He gave her a locket at the time which she still has and pulled out for him to see, 47 years later.
While both Mrs Peterson and Lyn Rees were apprehensive, they agree they need not have worried as the atmosphere has been one of friendship at all times.
This was Mrs Peterson’s first trip to New Zealand but both she and her husband hope it will not be their last.
“It was the experience of a lifetime,” she said, adding their daughter plans to come back with her brother Lance during the ski season.
The next big catch up session will be when the Rees’ head over to Big Sandy, Montana, something they know will also be an experience of a lifetime.
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