Saturday, January 28, 2012

A January wedding

Well, actually, not quite a wedding, because Sara & Kenjiro got married in April in Japan. But many friends and family weren't able to attend it, so they all came out to NZ, and staged a 'celebration' in Napier.

The Williams' are long-time family friends, going back to the days when our Sarah Rose was a pre-schooler. The two families lived next door to each other, and have remained friends ever since. And stay in touch.

So: it was a family trip to Napier in early January. We travelled separately to Napier after work on the Friday, and then met up for a drink later in the evening.

Saturday was given to wandering lovely Napier, visiting the Art Deco clothing shops and dressing up


re-visiting favourite landmarks along the waterfront

and playing mini-golf.

After that it was time to head back to the motel, rest up



get ready

rendezvous with the others and then head for the venue.

And a lovely evening it was too. I was pleased I knew so many of the people there, and it was nice to catch up with them. And lovely to see Sara & Kenjiro.

I took lots of photos for them, and also got the speeches on video.








It was raining very heavily by the time the evening finished, and it carried on the next day. But we were still able to get to the Hastings Farmers' Market for a scout around and some sampling (it's even better on a nice fine warm morning!) before we farewelled the kids (who had to head home for work) and then headed to the Williams'.

Because of the weather we had decided to stay an extra night, so the trip on Monday was in dry conditions. We paused at Onga Onga to see what the church buildings are like, and found the most aptly named church I've seen in a long time!

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