Dog training reunites old school friends

A chance meeting at a Rotorua dog training school has rekindled the friendship of two women - more than 60 years after they formed a special bond at a tiny school near Raetihi.

The women felt a special bond because they were the only two students in their class in 1947.

Dog, bird and fish trainer Christine Hutchings, originally from Raetihi, had no idea when she went to train her dogs last month she was going to find a school friend from so long ago.

"I was just waiting to start when they introduced Lois to the class. I realised who it was and I jumped around so excited telling everyone we were at school together," she said.

Mrs Hutchings and Lois Hulbert were the only standard one students at Orautoha school, near Ohakune, back in the 1940s.

When Mrs Hulbert saw her long-lost friend, she said, "Was that you Chris?"

"We just had a lovely hug." Mrs Hulbert said she lived in the country while at school and the bus did not pick her up, so the Government paid her a penny a mile for walking to school.

At the school of 11 pupils, Mrs Hulbert was the taller of the two women all those years ago and she said she didn't know what had happened to her height.

"Chris was the little one and I was a lot taller but now it's reversed, Chris is so much taller. I think it's because she ate all the swedes we used to steal from the neighbours," she said.

Both women said New Zealand had gone through huge changes over the decades and the country was not any worse or better from when they were children.

"Kids will always get themselves in trouble but it's a different kind of trouble from when we were little," Mrs Hulbert said.

Both women were busy with their many grandchildren, and Mrs Hutchings said training her dogs kept her going.

"Retirement is a swear word that does not apply to us. I train dogs and enjoy the fun of competition," she said.