Beach Wedding, St Heliers Beach (Rangatoto hidden from view)

My best mate from home, Howell Havard, rang a few months ago to let me know that he was coming out to New Zealand for three weeks in December with his partner Tracey and their two children Iwan and Megan for a holiday. Howell runs a Breconshire-based sheep farming operation with his brothers and has been to New Zealand before shearing. I can’t remember quite how the telephone conversation went but it concluded with the decision that I would arrange for them to get married while they are in New Zealand. 

On Monday I went to the airport to pick them up. Unfortunately Howell had given me the wrong day so the flight arrived and nobody appeared in the arrival hall !! Two hours later (and not being able to verify that they had been on board) I gave up and headed back to St Heliers. A phone call to the UK confirmed that they were arriving the next day.

So the next day, after heading to the Department of Internal Affairs in the city to sort out the marriage licence paperwork, I again headed over to the airport and, about an hour after the plane landed the Havard family appeared in arrivals. It was great to see them all and they were glad to have reach the end of a long journey. They picked up their hire car and then headed to St Heliers.

With the wedding ceremony arranged for Saturday, the next day they launched energetically into their tour of the country with a visit to friends in the Bay of Islands for a few days.

Our celebrant, she also does non-religious funerals.

On Friday Ruth collected the wedding licence from the Department of Internal Affairs and in the evening Howell and family returned from the Bay of Islands.

Stag night at the Cock & Bull, Ellerslie with Sam Walsh and the groom, Howell Havard).

As it was effectively Howell’s last opportunity for a stag night we headed across to Ellerslie where we met up with our mate Sam Walsh (a kiwi who had played rugby with us for Brecon RFC) in the Cock and Bull pub. Sam then drove us to the Auckland showground where Telecom’s Christmas party was being held. About 2000 people were accommodated in the main pavilion where there was live entertainment and free food and drink. At the end of the evening we jumped on one of the buses laid on to take people back to town and called in a few bars in the viaduct harbour to round the evening off.

Romantic beyond.

Saturday arrived as a lovely summer’s day. At 11.45am we head across to the beach with the ‘celebrant’. With Rangatoto in the background, the sea lapping on to the beach and under blue skies the short but moving ceremony was completed and Howell and Tracey were married. As the best man, the person giving the bride away, a witness for the signing of the wedding register and the official photographer, I am kept busy throughout the service!! As part of the service a poem about friendship is read which was very touching.

Signing the wedding certificate at the St Heliers dunnies.

At the end of the service the sole on-looker (other than the four adults and five children that make-up the Havard and Morris families), a Maori lady who was sat on the beach nearby cheered. After signing the register and sharing some Champaign by the steps to the St Heliers’ dunnies we walk back to our house where we cut the cake and get changed into beach attire for the reception which was an afternoon of water sports at Mission Bay beach.

Wedding reception at Mission Bay.

At Mission Bay I had arranged for a small pagoda to be put up under which there was a make-shift round table and a few chairs where Thai ‘finger food’, Thai curries and chocolate fondu were served at around 4pm.

Hanging on for dear life at the ‘wedding reception’.

During the afternoon we had use of a jet-ski, ‘banana boat’, kayaks, wind surfers and an inflatable ‘biscuit’. We all had great fun – the kids loved the ‘banana boat’ and Kayaks and the adults had great fun on the jet-ski.

St Heliers beach with Ellie, Cari, Iwan, Meg and Meg. Rangitoto’s shoulder in the background.

The kids thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon and the laid back water sports staff helped with supervising the children. We had food and stayed on the beach until about 6.30pm and then headed back to St Heliers where we all had showers, changed clothes and spent the evening chatting over a glass of wine. A great day !!!