Sunday, November 30, 2008

NZ: Megan and Tony's wedding

On  the weekend of 21-24 November I was lucky enough to head back to NZ for a friends wedding. Lucky as the flight back were a birthday present. Unfortunately it was too late to get back for my good friend Ange's 4oth birthday though.

I flew out of Perth on Thursday evening Auckland, it was an overnight flight and was way more tiring than I gave it credit for. We left Perth at 6.50 pm and arrived in Auckland at 4.45am and Wellington at 8am. It was only 8 degrees when I arrived in Auckland which was a shock to my system after living in Perth for a few weeks. The flight to NZ was pretty uneventful and these days we get our own personal entertainment with our own movie screens, this makes the trip always go much faster.

I had planned on doing lots of errands on arrival into Wellington but tiredness overcame me and I ended up having an afternoon nap. Friday night was spent having a great catch up BBQ with Jason's family and talking to Jason on Skype so that he didn't feel too left out and alone in Perth by himself. Even though I had a great afternoon nap I still slept really well that night and slept in till about 11.30 am. I don't ever sleep that late. In my defence it was only equivalent to 7.30am Perth time :-)

After the fantastic sleep in it was time to get ready for the wedding as I needed to be at the Wellington Railway station and on the bus ready to go by 1.45pm. The wedding itself (reception and ceremony) were held at Pencarrow Lodge- http://www.pencarrowlodge.co.nz/

The lodge is about an hour bus trip from Wellington, it is rural, remote and has amazing expansive views. It is out past Eastbourne and the Pencarrow lighthouse. 

Here is a shot from the bus we are still on our way to the lighthouse at this stage. This part of the trip made me a little sad as it is this rugged beauty of the Wellington coastline that I miss in Perth.

Still heading out to the lodge on the bus, lucky I don't get car sick unlike some guests travelling.
Megan, the bride, was arriving by helicopter and as I understand it she nearly didn't get off the ground as it was almost too windy to fly.  After some phone calls and favours Megan managed to get the biggest Helipro chopper there was and luckily she was able to fly in as planned. Here is the helipad.
This is our first view of the bride and bridesmaid... it was pretty exciting really as the chopper did a fly by first before swoping back up and around and then finally landing.

Here is the beautiful bride, Megan and her cousin, Bridget. It was a windy day (even by wellington terms) but they both looked great.
The start of the ceremony.
Bridget trying to keep Megan's dress under control in the wind... hehehe
The whole bridal party and the great view out at the lodge.
I now pronounce you Dr and Mrs Harrison!!! You may kiss the bride!!!
Signing the register.
Having a quiet moment to themselves after the ceremony and from the strenuous time of photos and congratulations coming up!!!!
Nice spot for a bath :-)
The beautiful wedding cake (it tasted as good as it looked)
And the bride and groom... 
Tony's father spent hours engraving names into rocks (Tony is a doctor of geology). It was a lovely way to do placenames.
No detail was spared, the place and table settings were just lovely.

The lodge itself was great, inside there were two roaring fires to keep us all warm which made it very nice and toasty! So the strappy dress wasn't too bad at all inside.
After an hour or so Megan and Tony were back from their photos... and still looking great.



After they returned from photos we were treated to a great dinner, awesome bread rolls, great salads: 
  • tomato, basil and feta, 
  • asparagus, avocado and strawberry, 
  • spinach, pine nut and parmesan, and
  • Kumara and orange
We also had amazing roast pumpkin (boy do I miss NZ pumpkin and kumara), and new bolied potatoes.

The meat was also great with roast beef, ham and pesto filled chicken breast wrapped in bacon!!!

Dessert was a choice of chocolate mousse or pavlova with strawberry cream.

After dinner and some tear inducing speeches we were treated to a spectacular Wellington sunset:




Here is the bride and groom's first dance.

After a few dances it was time to leave. Our bus left the lodge at 11.30pm and I was home by 1am.

All in all it was a great evening catching up with some good friends and celebrating with Megan and Tony for the start of their married life together.

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