Penpals together after 50 years

Penpals Heather Slade (L) from New Zealand and American Linda Stokes meet for the first time at Auckland Airport. Photo / Greg Bowker

Exactly 50 years ago two young school girls started what would become a lifelong friendship.

Penpals Linda Stokes of Florida and Heather Slade of Hastings - firm friends since primary school - met for the first time on Tuesday and could not stop smiling and laughing.

After five decades of exchanging letters, photos and gifts the women came face to face at the Auckland Airport arrival gate.

Their friendship started in 1959 with long, handwritten letters that took weeks to arrive. Now the pair prefer brief, and more frequent, emails.

Linda remembers the day she signed up for the penpal assignment.

Her teacher wrote a list of countries on the board along with the names of students.

"I'm sorry, at 9 years old I didn't know where New Zealand was and so I picked Heather."

Linda loves learning about other cultures and one early letter she remembers writing was about the holiday season.

"I felt foolish, I asked her what she was doing for Thanksgiving - doesn't everybody celebrate Thanksgiving?"

Linda has kept a scrapbook containing many of the letters and photos they exchanged.

"I have the first photo she sent me - she was 10 - so I sent it back to her for her 60th birthday."

As a special present Linda also included a copy of a letter Heather wrote as a teenager in 1968.

"I had talked about a chap I was going with at the time and asked her about the guy she was going with and we're still with them - they're our husbands," said Heather.

It has been a lifelong dream of Linda's to visit New Zealand.

"It just took a few years to get here - I just hoped we were both still functioning fully."

Both Linda and her husband are teachers so the Christmas break was the perfect time to head down under.

"You go to college, get married, have children, pay for college tuition and weddings and now it's our turn."

Despite the distance the women have a strong connection.

"I think what has made it especially sweet has been the longevity of it," said Linda.

"It would have to be one in a million to have this kind of longevity."

Both women are Christians and believe their faith helped cement the bond.

"Over the years as you grow up you have different crises and it's nice to know you have someone praying on the other side of the world," said Linda.

Linda teaches first grade at Bayshore Elementary in Florida and with the help of Heather has set up a penpal programme with Mahora Primary in Hastings.

One of Linda's students, Nathan, almost made a slight cultural faux pas while writing to his penpal.

"He said 'we love to eat Kiwi at our school' and I said 'they're going to think we're eating the bird' - so we went back and squeezed in the word fruit."

The two couples will spend Christmas travelling around Northland before Linda and her husband make their way around the South Island.

Linda is already planning a second trip. "My husband doesn't know that - I'll tell him later."