"NZ Winter Wedding"

This trip was necessitated my brother Nat's marriage to his long time girlfriend, Kristina. It was in fact the first time that Id done a return trip to the southern hemisphere without stopping on the way so I was a little apprehensive when I got onto Air New Zealand flight NZ1 via LA to Auckland at Heathrow, having spent the earlier portion of the day wandering down the Chiswick high road in shorts and t-shirt knowing that I'd be faced with the full blast of winter two days later when I stepped off the plane in New Zealand.

Thursday 22rd July

I arrived in Christchurch airport to be greeted by Mum and Dad on a bleak showery day after the massive journey which, contained some of the bizarre 'anti-terrorist' measures at LAX where I had to queue up for a transit visa which entitled me to sit in a room for an hour. I did manage to read 'Harry Potter and the order of the phoenix' but the only other thing I accomplished on the flight was a sense of bewilderment and confusion which wasn't helped as I wandered out into the airport car park in the wintry rain.

Rather than taking a car down to Queenstown as I had planned, I decided to get a flight that afternoon and saved my fragile constitution the five hour drive. It was with great pleasure when I awoke a few minutes out of Queenstown airport to find the skies were blue and the sun's rays reflecting over mountains covered in what looked like fresh snow.

Nat picked me up and took me back home to Arrowtown where we had dinner and I stayed awake for as long as I could before the lack of sleep caught up with me and I drifted off into sleep, eagerly anticipating a fun time on the slopes the following day.

Sunday 25th July

On Friday morning, Nat, Kris and I headed up Coronet Peak and I decided to give my snowboard a run. After getting sorted and used to the technique again we met Bundy, Nat's mate, who had driven up from Invercargill that morning - and spent the rest of the day finding fun lines down the mountain with him. The weather was once again clear, calm and the snow was excellent. After the days play, Bundy and Nat went out to get some food and Kris and I went back to Arrowtown via Speargrass Flat where they had an idea of buying sometime soon. We had a look at quite a few places and it would be fair to say that property in that area is not cheap!

On Saturday, the others headed over to the Snow Farm to do some skating and I borrowed Bundy's car for a trip into Queenstown where I relaxed in another sunny (but still cool - 6 deg C) day, taking a few snaps of the lake and surrounds. It was a pleasant day and I was constantly surprised how friendly people were, as I kept on getting myself into conversations about such inane topics as the weather and who would win the nights rugby game between NZ and South Africa. The light was pretty good, and some of the photos I took are in the montage below.

After the others got back from a hard days play, we sneaked down the New Orleans Hotel in Arrowtown to watch the rugby and had a pint or two as the All Blacks pipped South Africa in the last minute of play.

Sunday morning was spent lazing while Nat and Kris were arranging things for their wedding, and so we headed up the hill again for a half day in the afternoon, where this time I decided that skiing would be the order of the day. It was a very fast paced half day, with little or no rest and I was very weary as we returned to Arrowtown. We thought we'd head into Queenstown for dinner, but just as we were about to head off - the troops from Australia I'd arranged to meet, and who had mysteriously not been in touch to date; Hayesy, Joffa, Perc, Matt, Jodie, Chris and Leiana turned up. I was obliged then, to take them out to the pub.

Thursday 29th July

As Hayesy's knee was not at all working well, his ability to ski was compromised and as an alternative, he Perc and I booked a tee time at the local golf resort of Millbrook after the others had been safely dropped off at the top of the ski hill. Two of the holes were closed as a result of snow, but the other 16 were open and played pretty well, the frozen ground allowing some pretty impressive drives on the concrete like ground, but made pitching up onto the green somewhat difficult. By the time we'd finished our 'round' it was time to pick the others up from the mountain and we sent half the crew off to get food while we went home and sampled some of the local beer and also had a few tastings of a New Zealand produced Manuka Honey flavoured vodka. For those of you that are not in 'the know' manuka honey, (honey made from bees pollinating flowers from manuka trees) has some medicinal properties, although I'm not sure putting it in vodka is going to help those qualities, still it tasted nice enough and after dinner with some of this in our bellies we piled into a cab and headed for the nightlife of Queenstown.

After meandering around some of the many bars of Queenstown, we settled on a bar called Winnebagoes where their claim to fame is that the whole roof, courtesy of some kind of hydraulic contraption, opens up into the night air. Due to noise restrictions, they are no longer prone to opening the roof letting the freezing night air into the bar ever hour as they had on some of my previous visits, but as they were closing the roof duly opened allowing us to briefly gaze up at the stars on a clear, cold night.

The next morning after the mist in front of my eyes lifted, I waited for the mist in front of the mountain to lift and after having a coffee, pie and custard square at the fantastic Arrowtown bakery, caught a ride up the hill with Nat for a half days play on skis. We caught up with Nat's buddy Matt, who hurtles down the slopes so fast, I struggled to keep up until later in the day when he started to get a bit tired - unfortunately by that stage, I was also pretty much knackered too despite 4 hours less on the slopes.

We returned home from the busy day of playing and had a couple of beers before Hayesy, Matt, Joffa and I popped down to the town for dinner and a couple more beers the visitors demonstrating an ability to not hack the pace of the play hard drink hard life they obviously lack in their native Australia. Still, it was some source of amusement after, when approached for a breath test by the police, Joffa didn't quite know how to say his name into the device that PC plod held up to his mouth.

Wednesday morning saw the gang move out to a hostel in Queenstown to allow the first few of the wedding guests to begin occupying their spots in the house. I did a spot of cleaning, then joined Bundy who had returned from Invercargill in heading up Coronet Peak where I met the girls and a few others and on Telemarks struggled down the mountain at very moderate speeds punctuated quite frequently by crashes of varying magnitudes.

After a leg burning day which included a non-stop run down the mountain (before you start pouring scorn, its a lot harder to do on teles) I caught a ride down to Queenstown with the girls and had a shower and a few beers before finding a Chinese restaurant for dinner. My brother around this time had sent a text saying that his stag party was now on, and so I met him and some of his mates at the Pig and Whistle a (very) pseudo English pub where a night of debauchery began. Suffice to say that somehow late in the evening, I got very lost and even though Id booked a bed in a room in Queenstown, somehow ended up in Arrowtown and stayed in the spot that Id fallen upon after arriving, for most of the day. Later in the day I did manage to get out to see some vineyards and the bungy bridge with Bernadette, Nat and Jim but that was about as energetic as I got.

Friday 30th July

Having recovered sufficiently from the previous days internal woes, I was picked up by Joffa, Perc and Matt on their way to the Wanaka skifield of Treble Cone.

It was a really nice day and as we started the journey past Wanaka and Glendhu Bay to the ski field access road, the weather forecast on the radio allayed any fears of bad weather for the wedding the following day by saying that it was looking good, and there was only more good weather to come. It was my first time skiing at TC and I was impressed with the mountain even after managing to fall backwards down a rocky face for a couple of metres on the first run of the day. In some kind of leg preservation move, I went back onto skis for the day, but as I was to find out - this was no help at all, and probably some kind of fitness may have helped. Unfortunately, there is every chance that I wont learn from this before my next ski trip.

As you can see from the photos I took during the day, the vistas out over lake Wanaka are fantastic, and it is great to pretend that you are admiring the scenery when in all reality your legs are burning and you are totally stuffed. At the very least the views do take your mind off the terrible shape you are in.

I had a good old explore around the ski hill, and enjoyed a some great runs, although the snow was a tad spring-like and in many places looked really soft and fluffy only for me to find that it was crusty and icy when I tried to ski over it.

We headed back across the windy Crown Range road as the sun set over magic views of the Wakitipu basin and after getting back to Arrowtown I found that it was time to get some of the organisation for the wedding together. I met Roo (Tim) and shared the task of making the mulled wine which would be used to warm up the punters before their trip to the 'secret location' of the ceremony the next day.

This job completed, it was time to head down to 'Pesto' a restaurant in town where a pre- wedding dinner was going on. The eating and drinking continued well into the night and I got a good nights sleep by not joining the crew that decided to walk up and ski/toboggin down Coronet Peak at 6:00 on the morning of the wedding.

Saturday 31st July (Wedding Day)

As expected the day dawned fine and clear and crisp and calm as they do so well in Central Otago and I'm sure if someone had dropped a pin a kilometre away the reverberations would be heard all through the valley.

I got a few bits and pieces sorted for the reception and got ready for the photos which were taken at the Chinese village in Arrowtown and on the shore of Lake Hayes. Kevin, the photographer kept our interest levels up with interesting poses and humourous stories of Leeds United actually winning games (ho ho ho), despite the entirely unwarm temperatures. After this, there was a little more admin to sort before we got ourselves ready to drive up to the 'secret location' at the top of Tobins Track a spot that overlooks Arrowtown and Lake Hayes through to Lake Wakatipu and is bordered by the Remarkables on one side and Coronet and Brow Peaks on the other.

We got the photos done and then had a few moments to take in the views before the coaches containing the wedding party arrived. As we were waiting, a girl appeared at the top of the track having just walked up the not inconsiderable distance from Arrowtown and embarrassingly asked if she could sneak past us to take some photos of the view. She lingered right up until the two coach loads of people started walking towards where we were standing, almost unwilling to give up the grand vista spread out in front of her. Nat blew a conch shell to welcome everyone arriving along the path and my Aunty Bessy did a Karanga (welcome call) to which my Dad, leading the 'visitors' replied.

After everyone had crowded around, Nat and Kris were presented with a mat to stand on for their vows by Kris's Mum, and then went ahead with the vows. Handing over the rings proved no problems for a man of my talents, Uncle Keith presented them with a pounamu (greenstone) piece each and only a short amount of time later - they were married.

As I didn't get my camera delivered to the ceremony as I had planned - I don't have any photos, but luckily have had a few sent to me (credits included) which appear in the slide show here.

We scooted down to the reception venue, the pavilion beside Lake Hayes, and made ready with a couple of glasses of champagne for the coaches to arrive. After a few more drinks everyone settled down to a couple of pre-dinner speeches from the two fathers and then dinner. After the food was greedily consumed (at least by me) there followed a couple of power point presentations from Karl and Bundy with some obligatory photos from the early days in the newly- married couples lives. Nat and Kris then spoke, punctuated by Nat singing a really cool song that he wrote about the course of their relationship.

The party went on until midnight when the power went off, and the coaches returned us to Arrowtown and bed.

Monday 2nd August

Sunday dawned just as fine as for the wedding the previous day and after getting the odd chore done in the morning I hung out at the house, chatting to the crowds of people who came past for brunch. The guys from Australia popped past on their way back home to say good bye and by about midday it all became a bit too much, so Blair, Charlotte, Bernadette and I snuck off to the Remarkables ski area to get some skiing in. It was a beautiful day and I got some good runs in on some spring-like snow conditions. The last run of the day saw Bernadette gracefully face-plant mid-way down the shadow basin chair.

After getting back to Arrowtown, we cleaned up and had dinner down by the lake while letting off the fireworks that we'd not exploded the previous night. A couple of drinks and conversations later, it was time for bed - so I made plans to head back to Christchurch with Ngaere the following day and drifted off to sleep.

The next morning we cleaned up the house, packed and had a coffee in Arrowtown before hitting the road back to Christchurch. I got back to Jim and Barb's at around 4:00ish and chilled out for a bit before they came back from work. That night I tried to sort out copying the wedding video from my camera - and arranged to get a copy from Ngaere of some of the footage she took.

Thursday 5th August

After a freezing cold day sightseeing and shopping around Christchurch on Tuesday, we went out for dinner at a local restaurant and had some kiwi kaimoana (seafood) for the last time in a while, then met Nat, Kris and Karl who had just arrived back from Arrowtown and had a coffee with them at home before getting up the courage to dive into my freezing cold bed to spend my last night in NZ for a fair while.

The next day was once again freezing, and I packed up did a little bit of shopping and met Jim and Barb for a coffee before heading out to the airport and the massive trip back to London. Nothing interesting at all happened on the way back, but I did read 'Bird song' by Sebastian Faulks which I recommend, and also the very informative 'Penguin History of New Zealand' by Michael King which is certainly worth a look. It changed a few of my previously incorrect views on the old country.

I arrived at Heathrow some 35-odd hours later very overdressed and sweated back to Chiswick where I fought unsuccessfully, to stay awake for the rest of the day. The usual jet-lag ensued over the coming days, but I was in summer and a few days drinking by the river in the sun soon fixed everything.