I have to say that I thought that this book wouldn't be a surprise, but in fact, I didn't expect some of the events.
When Ida, Karl and Mara return to Rata Farm, they have news. Ida and Karl have found a house on the North Island which they have bought, and they want to live there because it reminds them of Bahia, where they first kissed. Karl suggests Chris and Cat buy him out, and they accept. Mara, Carol and Linda do not want to move from their home, and Cat says that she is okay with them staying.
Then Mara and Eru are caught naked at the river by Jane, who is very angry. Jane sends Eru to a mission school near Christchurch, and Ida and Karl agree that Mara live with the Greenwoods, looking after their youngest baby before they move to the North Island.
Then Cat and Chris are invited to a wedding in the south, and they tell Linda and Carol that they have to accompany as they won't be allowed to stay on the farm alone. So they travel on a ship in first class. The girls make friends with an officer, Tommy Paxton, as there is conflict with the Maori led by the man Karl and Ida saw preach. The last night there is a dance, and Cat and Chris decide to go to their cabin early. The girls want to stay but Cat tells them that they need to protect their reputation. They go to their cabins reluctantly, but then Carol tells Linda that Bill will be waiting for them as they can sneak out when they are sure that Cat and Chris are in bed. When they are back in the ballroom, the weather becomes worse and worse, and the captain decides to evacuate the passenger in the boats. Linda, Carol and Bill are taken on one boat and Chris and Cat on another. After several days Linda and Carol reach the coast, but they are told that they are the only survivors. After resting for a few days they return home. Linda refuses to believe that Chris and Cat are dead as she claims that she would feel if her mother were dead.
Months pass, and the girls take care of the farm. Then Joseph Greenwood tells them that it has been a year since Cat and Chris got lost, and they should be declared dead so that business were easier. Lind and Carol do it reluctantly. Now Linda is in love with Oliver's friend, Fitz, a young man who I find fishy as he does not want to talk about his past, and he is now hired at the farm. Then the bomb surprises Carol and Linda when Jane, who is still married to Chris legally, comes forward, claiming that her son is Chris's son legally, and he is the lawful heir. So overnight the girls find themselves homeless. What is more, Oliver breaks up with Carol because as now she is not the heir of the estate, his parents thinnk that they can do better with another girl.
Fitz asks Linda to marry him, and they plan to go to the south to find gold. Even though Bill Paxton, who has come to visit, tells him that there is nothing there, Fitz is adamant to find his fortune in that area. Fitz and Linda get married and travel to Otago, and from the first moment Linda realises that things are not going to be easy.
Bill Paxton travels with Carol and Mara as they want to reach their parents, but the Maori conflict makes it difficult, and Carol and Mara help interpreting for the army, which is difficult as there are a few officers who have a very strict attitude towards the Maori.
Eru is very angry with his mother. After returning home, he claims that his heart is Maori and wants to be a real warrior. When he and some other Maori take the sheep to graze on the mountains, he goes to have his face completely tattooed, which is excrucitingly painful. On his return Jane is not happy, and neither is one of the elders, who think that a young man like Eru can't have his whole face tattooed as he needs to leave room for other experiences. Then Eru and two other Maori travel to join the conflict as they believe that it is right to fight to have the white men and women expelled from the island.
I have to say that I find the part about Eru and the war dragging and dull. I love the other subplots, and even though I enjoy discovering new aspects of the Maori culture, I don't like the part about the war too much.
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