SPOILERS!!!
The part in Te Wairoa ends in tragedy. One night Aroha, who is at the home of some white settlers, hears an explosion. Soon they realise that Mount Tarawera, which is a volcano, has erupted. Bao knows about how dangerous it is, and he urges everybody to flee. Koro tells Aroha that the best thing is to take shelter in his mother's home. So Aroha and Bao help lead the way to the house while Koro stays behind, warning the Maori. Bao has a baby with him, and the climb to Sofia's cottage is difficult as they have to walk in mud and a cascade of ash. They reach the safety of Sofia's cottage. Robin, Vera and the others of the company are also there. Yet, Koro does not turn up, and the next day when Bao and Robin go to find him, they discover that he is dead as well as dozens of people.
Koro's death confirms Aroha that she is cursed. It is the same as with Mattiu, and she swears she won't marry. The baby that Koro rescued, Lani, has lost her parents, and Aroha decides that she will raise the girl as if she were her own.
Aroha has another worry, which is Robin. She can see that he is not happy and his talent is wasted in Vera's company. So she confronts her uncle, and Robin finally tells her the truth and how Vera keeps threatening with going to the police. Aroha makes him see that Vera can't report him because she is deeply involved. Robin is now convinced that she will leave the company. The next day he talks to Vera to tell her about his decision. Then she tells him that they could talk about the matter outside. Vera leads him to a lake, and Vera uses her usual weapons to seduce him. She undresses and goes into the lake, but Robin remains firm in his decision. Then there is some noise, and Robin witnesses how Vera is sucked, and the geyser jets her upwards. The water is boiling, and she is definitely dead. Robin runs for help, and Vera's body is never found.
Linda and Cat arrive, and Cat finally gets to see her son after two years. Robin is ashamed, but Cat tries not to burden him. Aroha has decided to open the hotel she and Koro had planned to run, but this time she and Bao will manage everything. Cat and Linda are impressed. Before Linda and Cat leave, a woman approaches her and her fiancé. The woman is Helena Lacrosse, and she tells Aroha, Lind and Cat that she saw Robin perform in a woman's dress, and she was shocked because Robin looks like the portrait of her greataunt that her grandfather has in the living room. Helena tells them that her grandfather's sister, Suzanne, left Australia many years ago, and she was never heard of again. Cat tells her that her mother was called Suzanne, but she was very sick and Cat last saw her when she was thirteen, and she doubts Suzanne is alive. Helena begs Cat to come and visit her and her grandfather in Dunedin, where they run a woolen mill.
When Cat returns to the station, Robin goes with them. He is ashamed, but his father does not give him a hard time. In Rata Station he discovers that March is back, and now she wants to be called Margery. She tells him later that Martin left her for a rich heiress just because the other woman had a business to inherit. What March can't forgive him that he betrayed her to leave her without a job, as management did not really know about her real job. Now she is back in the Maori village, and she is considering studying law.
Helena's grandfather, Edward, turns up at Rata Station unexpectedly. The man wants to meet Cat and Robin, and he realises that his granddaughter is right, and Robin is the spitting image of his sister. Cat tells him what she knows about Suzanne, but she hides the ugliest part, so she lies and says that Suzanne was a waitress.
A few weeks later Cat receives a telegram, saying that Edward has died of a stroke, and she and Robin are invited to the funeral and the reading of the will. Cat and Robin arrive in Dunedin, and they are taken to the grand house where the Lacrosses live. Cat has always believed that the reason why Helena approached them in the first place is that she doesn't want to marry her fiancé, Harold Wentworth, who may have been arranged by her grandfather. If there were another heir, she would be free of Harold. Cat and Robin are surprised when during the reading of the will they are informed that Robin has been left the sole heir of the house in Ninedin and the woollen mill. Everybody is surprised, and Harold is outraged. Yet, when he realises there is nothing he can do and he wants to keep his job in management, he stays put. Cat and Robin visits the mill, and soon they realise that the conditions for the workers are horrible, and Cat knows that they will have to make changes.
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