A wedding, a beach, some sandflies!

Alan’s daughter Debbie and her fiance Jason got married in Ashburton recently, and we were fortunate to have friends Cushla and Kevin join us. Friday night was the rehearsal, Saturday morning was hair etc, then the wedding itself was mid-afternoon. It was held in the stunning gardens of his parent’s property – they had done so much work to create a beautiful setting. I didn’t take any photos, which is unusual for me, but the wedding was just so lovely that I was concentrating on the ceremony. Debbie looked beautiful, Jason and his son Dante looked handsome; even the two dogs looked great in their wedding bibs.

Sunday morning we had a lovely walk round the Ashburton Domain before heading back to Jason’s parents for brunch with everyone. Later in the day we drove to Lake Tekapo and spent the night with Maryrose. Lake Tekapo is beautiful; the three of us walked into town for dinner and it was lovely in the evening air. On the way out the next day we braved the queues and it was worth it because now we both recommend the pies at the bakery in Fairlie – so good! We drove back to Hokitika via Lake Coleridge, way up a gravel road so we could see Mt Algidus which had featured in Mona Anderson’s book “A river rules my life”.

We were fortunate to have the use of an off-grid beach bach for two nights, about an hour from Hokitika. It was a bit of adventure getting there as we had to ford a river a few times, towing the boat, and the final crossing didn’t quite go to plan. That’s enough about that 😉 He did some fishing, we watched a South Island Robin come in and roam the bach to clean up any insects, Alan went out at night watching the deer and … I provided a tasty snack for the local sandfly population!

We’d stayed an extra night with Kevin and Cushla before heading to the beach so when we got back we stayed with Scott and Helen, which meant Alan could do some farm work too. I caught up with Pen Kirk for lunch so we could start planning what comes next for our collab art. We’re not working towards another joint exhibition for now, but we do have a mission, which feels good. There’s something magic about collaborating with an artist you trust so you both have freedom to create without fear.