The Legend Of Fire Mountain 3 (Pages 76 - 171)

 SPOILERS!!!

In Rata Station Aroha manages to forget her sadness and fears thanks to her family. When she and her cousins go to see Hamlet in Dunedin, Robin begs to wait for the actors for an autograph. That is when she meets Isabelle Morris, a young woman who is learning languages in a school, and Aroha realises that this is what she wants to do. So she starts living with the Morrises during the school year. 

Robin is adamant he wants to be an actor. His parents help him by getting him classes with a popular actor who is in Christchurch for some months with his company. Cat and Chris realise how talented he is when he plays a small part in the last performance of the play. Robin would like ajob in the company, but he is told that there are no vacancies for him. 

Then some months later there is a newspaper advertisement in which a theatre company is recruiting actors on the North Island. Cat and Chris tell him that they need to ask if the company is trustworthy, and Chris plans to travel with him. yet, Robin leaves during the night, and Chris tells Cat that they need to let him be. 

Robin realises that the company is not what he expected. The person running the company is Vera Carrigan, the woman who interfered in Linda's first marriage. There are two other people, Leah, a bleak actress, and Bertram, an alcoholic actors. They perform in a disreputable pub with scenes from different plays. Vera seduces Robin, and the next day he is certain that he needs to leave, but that day Vera tells Robin that he needs to improvise and act as if he were her husband. So he agrees to do that, and when he goes to her room, he finds her with a man, and Vera pretends that she is afraid. The man is drunk, and when he starts dressing, Vera grabs his wallet and takes some bills. When he is gone, Robin realises that she is nothing but a fraud. And then Vera tells him that he is stuck with her and the company, or she will go to the police and tell them that he was the one who stole the money. And naive, silly Robin feels powerless.

March now is living with Martin Porter, the teacher her grandmother hired. He was hired by a woollen manufacturing company, and Mara decided to move in with him. She works in the factory as well, controlling the workers. Peta, her brother, thinks that the workers there live under terrible conditions, and he plans to study law and become a defender of poor people.

In Dunedin Aroha has received a job offer from some Maori living in the north. Many people from Europe are coming to New Zealand to visit the Pink and White Terraces as tourists, and the Maori tribe needs interpreters. So some elder Maori and young Koro go to the school, and the headmistress recommends Aroha. She is excited about the new job and accepts at once. 

Then she meets a Chinese man, Bao, who tells her about the difficulties that the Chinese have in New Zealand. He works hard but earns a pittance, so Ahora suggests he go with her to the north where she is sure he will be hired in the hotel as he talks several languages, and the Maori won't have a problem with him being Chinese.