“We connected backstage and I watched him give a great speech to a huge crowd. What a blast!” Ron Howard shared of reunited with his former ‘Happy Days’ costar Henry Winkler

Henry Winkler and Ron Howard.

Nearly 40 years after Happy Days came to an end, Ron Howard and Henry Winkler reunited down under.

The former sitcom costars smiled as they posed together at Winkler’s event for his memoir Being Henry: The Fonz…and Beyond in Sydney, Australia.

“LIFE! As the WORLD turns ⁦@RealRonHoward⁩ came to my book event in Sydney Australia. SO exciting for everyone !!!!” Winkler, 78, wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter) alongside the snapshot.

Howard, 69, also relished the opportunity to reunite with the Emmy winner.

“Just started post production in Sydney on my recently wrapped latest movie @edenthemovie starring an amazing cast,” he posted on X while resharing Winkler’s message. “A great creative experience but that’s for another post. When I touched base with Henry, I discovered he was making an appearance here in support of his excellent best-selling memoir #BeingHenry: The Fonz…and Beyond. Fantastic!”

He added: “We connected backstage and I watched him give a great speech to a huge crowd. What a blast! @RealImagine”

Happy Days ran for 11 seasons on ABC from 1974 to 1984. Set in 1950s and ’60s Milwaukee, Wisconsin, it followed the Cunningham family: father Howard (Tom Bosley), mother Marion (Marion Ross), son Richie (Howard) and daughter Joanie (Erin Moran), as well as Richie’s friends Potsie (Anson Williams) and Ralph (Don Most) — and, of course, local bad boy, Arthur “Fonzie” Fonzarelli (Winkler).

Henry Winkler and Ron Howard on “Happy Days”.

In November, Winkler reflected on the early days of the show and the stars’ long-lasting friendship.

“Ron, he’s an old soul. There’s a wisdom in him that is big,” Winkler told Today before recalling how Howard stepped in when Winkler — who is dyslexic — lost his temper and punched a script after struggling to get his line correct during Happy Days’ first season.

“Now Ron Howard was almost 10 years younger than I was. But Ron had been around the block a lot more times than me,” he added in his memoir, saying Howard put his arm around him and took him outside to explain that he shouldn’t punch a script.

“The writers are working as hard as they can,” Winkler recalled Howard telling him. “They’re trying really hard.”

“I went, ‘Ron, I’ll never do that again,’” Winkler told Today. “And that was the beginning of our friendship.”

Henry Winkler and Ron Howard on “Happy Days”.

The Barry star also shared his reaction to Howard’s decision to leave the series to become a director, writing in his book, I was completely thunderstuck. I was devastated, I was scared — you name it, I was feeling it. It was shocking.”

The pair have stayed close over the years since Howard’s departure. Despite the decades-long friendship, Winkler revealed that he was still surprised by a revelation at a recent dinner with each other’s families.

“Fifty years of history. All in the same place, at the same time. It was palpable,” he shared, before explaining the pair looked back on the day Howard toward Winkler he was moving on from the series.

“He says to me, ‘When you were very quiet [on the phone] and I had no idea what you were going to say, then you said, ‘Ron, go and get it. You want it. You’ve dreamt about this. Go and be the best director in the universe,”‘ he shared.

“That gave me a sense of calm,” he recalled Howard telling me and he responded, “’It took you 50 years to tell me that?’”

“At. The. Dinner table,” he added with a laugh. “Fifty f—ing years later.”

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.