Sunday, March 31, 2013

A hike before the wedding


I am jumping around a bit here, timewise, but it seemed important to post the wedding photos first, since that was the whole reason we are actually here in New Zealand!!!  However, the morning of the wedding, we also had a spectacular time, doing another hill walk around some of the property at Cape Kidnappers.  This time we did a walk to an area called Black Reef, where there is a famous gannet colony.  We didn't have time to go to the larger part of the colony, where there can be up to 6,000 birds at a time, but the area we saw had plenty of birds as it was!  And the views from the clifftop were spectacular.  I even offered to take a photo of Billy in a cave that was off trail - usually I am the one nagging about how we have to stick to the trail or we'll get lost.  Billy gets a bit sick of my stories about the "one time" I led a search and rescue team during my school days in New Mexico.  My team didn't actually find the missing person (although in all fairness, no-one else did either, as it turned out he didn't want to be found).  Anyway, my expertise of (ahem) almost twenty years ago, gets brought up on every hiking trip.  :) hee hee.   

I'm having some issues figuring out blogger.com so my apologies for the random order the photos sometimes seem to upload in, as well as the varying sizes.  But I can only spend so much time on this when there is so much fun to be had away from the computer!! :)

I just liked this one because of the sheep. :)

Going off-road.







Not so good at reading...






There are a few small caves here and there.








Baby gannets take five years to lose their fuzz!




View from the clifftop


Goodbye to The Farm at Cape Kidnappers

Today we left Hawke's Bay and flew down to Queenstown, in the South Island.  Two small planes - neither of them a fun flight.  But the hardest part was leaving The Farm at Cape Kidnappers behind...
One of the top (and toughest) golf courses in the world


The best start to a day

We will miss this morning view...

These horses have the best life ever.  Retirement at The Farm at Cape Kidnappers

It was so hard to leave this behind...

The Wedding!

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I know I probably say this about every wedding I have been to (all four of them, now!) but Tor and Alain’s wedding was truly spectacular.  They have been together for 13 years now and the ceremony was a true celebration of their love, and their families and friends love of them.  It was very special and I am so glad Billy and I got to share in their special day. (Thanks guys!!) 

Here are some shots from the wedding.  The ceremony and reception took place on the lawn in front of the main lodge.  Massive white balloons had been arranged to the chairs and the weather was perfect – warm but with a nice breeze.  The weather surprised everyone – luckily in a good way!

Dinner was served in a wedding tent filled with white lanterns.  Magical!  The whole event was wonderful.  Billy and I didn’t make it to past the first few dances, but apparently the party went on until the small hours of the morning.  A well-deserved celebration of an amazing couple.  Congratulations, Tor and Alain!!! 
xxx

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The beautiful couple.

Husband and wife!
At long last!





Congratulations!

The bubbles were flowing

What an amazing view!

The menfolk


Ken, a friend of Alain's from Canada.  Styling blue suit.


Do I really need to say what this is? :)
Magical...
Sunset during the first speech of the night

The wedding dinner



Simple, elegant decorations

A memory book





Sheep on the path!!