Here's Rosie and Anna. Anna is Kerry's mum, extremely funny, and became our wedding buddy.
The reception was in the Begonia House.
Emma and Andy during the speeches.
Emma and her likeness in cake
Rosie surrounded by poofs
Congrats guys! And thanks for the sandwiches.
The next day, they had a get together at their new house in Melrose.
This is their terrifying carpark.
It is just over the hill from Tom and Averil's (where we were staying) and also Sam and Jessica's. You could say Melrose is the hot spot.
Thinking of selling this one to Apple to use as a desktop wallpaper.
The view from the balcony when it's a bit overcast,
by sunset
and by night.
Lulu lives there
With Tom
and Averil
It was beautiful weather the whole time we were there. Between weddings, we ate a lot of food and did stuff like take Lulu to the beach.
Smiley crab
We spent a lot of time hanging out with Ralph too.
Here he is again, collecting water and refracting his face all over the place
The beaches are grey and spectaular
I liked the look of this archway but there was a gathering of drinkers at its base. They seemed friendly enough, but we kept our distance.
We took a trip out to Kerry and Marty's farm, which has perhaps the best backyard I have ever seen.
God
Kerry is a Dr Doolittle type of character. She has loads of animals that are her friends. These two pigs are very friendly and cute. I was a bit apprehensive to see them again, because Kerry had been telling us about how one of them had developed a big lump behind its eye, which had been discovered to be a build up of rotting food that had fed up through a hole behind its jaw. But by the time we arrived, the lump had exploded, leaving a hole with green stuff seeping out of it. Apparently, it's not painful. The story freaked us out, but the reality was quite pleasant. Nice pigs.
She showed us around a neighbouring property they are thinking of buying for about the same price as a round of drinks. Well, a bit more than that, but you get the picture.
Kerry and Rosie have been great friends since they were little kids. I wonder what Matt Saunderson is up to these days. Last I heard, he was a weatherman.
Kerry's ducks
Isos is an ancient cat who Kerry inherited from her dad. He was on his last legs when he arrived some months ago, but he seems to be getting a new lease of life. Apparently, he caught a rat the other day.
Kerry went out to pick some herbs and came back with a hedgehog.
The pigs make their own beds (they have a winter bed and a summer bed) and sleep head to toe.
Anna made the trip up for the night and we went for a walk the next morning. This hill was really, really steep.
How's the serenity? It's been quite a dry summer, hence the lovely yellows.
Marty's mum had caught a massive salmon, had it smoked and sent over a section for her sons to eat on bagels with cream cheese. We joined in. I don't usually like smoked salmon, but I was into this.
Then we realised we had to be at our next wedding in 5 minutes less than the computer thought it would take us to drive there. So we hotfooted it to the Wairarapa, to Karl and Milly's wedding. They had a sweet spot for it in the country, next to a babbling brook.
They had already got officially married in Paris, which is where I met them (again, Rosie has known Milly since she was a wee bairn). In Paris, they rode from the registry office on a tandem bike, so their family surprised them with another one here!
Things could've very easily gone awry at that point, but instead they went sparklingly.
Later on, this dude did a really good speech. It was shambolic charm at its best.The post-it notes were a great touch.
And that was about it! We're back again now. Here's Ralph.
