Despite having lived here for over two years now, there’s still a tiny part of me that feels weird referring to it in this way. Not in the bad sense, more in the miraculous, can’t-believe-I-got-so-lucky sense. Because this place has become everything to me.

I hear Bonnie calling my name before I see her, and the two of us exchange a matching smile of delight as I hurry across the arrivals lounge of Queenstown Airport. As it’s a Wednesday afternoon, Tui has not come with her, but is apparently very excited to see me when she comes home from school.

‘I had quite the struggle getting her in this morning,’ Bonnie confesses, as we make our way towards her battered old car. ‘I had to promise that you’d read her a bedtime story later, I’m afraid.’

‘No trouble,’ I say, slinging my suitcase into the backseat. ‘In fact, I have the new Evangeline And … book with me, straight off the press.’

‘And how is the author?’ Bonnie asks. ‘Still dating that film producer lady?’

‘Oh, yes,’ I confirm, wincing as Bonnie crunches her way through several gears as we trundle out of the car park. For someone so adept at steering a horse, my mother is an absolutely atrocious driver. ‘I met her at the Christening. Can you believe David has ended up with a Davina? You couldn’t make it up!’

Bonnie glances across at me. ‘And it wasn’t too upsetting, you know, seeing him with someone who wasn’t Anna?’

The truth is, I had been dreading meeting Davina for that very reason, but actually, when I saw how happy she was making my dad, all my fears seemed to just evaporate. Yes, it hurts to think of someone else being in Anna’s place, as it were, but it hurts almost as much to think of David being lonely. In the end, Anna would only ever want my dad to be happy – for both of us to be so.

I say as much to Bonnie as we hurtle along the highway, me, as always, marvelling at how her rusty old motor can reach such a speed without bits of it falling off.

‘Tell me about the baby,’ she prompts. ‘Is he a peach?’

I think for a moment.

‘I’d say more of a satsuma,’ I tell her. ‘All round-faced and wrinkly, but in the cutest way. Hayley said she cried when she first saw him, because he looked so much like Billy’s granddad.’

Bonnie chuckles. ‘And how does it feel to be an official godmother?’ she adds, to which I can’t help but beam with pleasure.

‘Amazing. I can’t wait for little Ludo to come and visit. Hayley and Billy are already threatening to leave him with me when they go on their honeymoon next summer. Did I tell you they’re coming here? They want to visit Abel Tasman and the Bay of Islands.’