D Day – 1 | Amy Thornton's NZ Trip

Saturday!

Busy day! We had breakfast at Milk & Honey again and then Laura and Marianne went off to be tourists for the day.

Noel, Ian and I were booked to see Jacinda at the reception for a final meeting at 10:30am. On the drive out our good friends Alec and Barb rang us from their boat in the Bahamas to have a chat and wish us good luck, which was really nice of them.

Jacinda has been brilliant and if you need someone to look after your wedding reception she is the one you need! We went through things and Ian was able to see where everything was.

At the end Ian mentioned something about if we had anything else we needed to tell him. As it happened, I did, but I couldn’t tell him in front of Noel as it was a surprise for Noel! For those who weren’t at the wedding you’ll just have to read tomorrow’s blog…! So in the end I texted Ian with the info. 🙂

After we’d finished at The Old Church we met up with Jason and Michelle at the Eskdale Church so we could show them how to get into the church and roughly what they needed to do when they picked up the flowers for us the next day. Afterwards we went to the River Valley Café with them for lunch.

We then split up and Noel and I went back to the flat and our landlady gave us some flowers and a card. 🙂 I collected my dress from Judy who lives opposite us and who had kindly been looking after the dress after it had been pressed. I then went final shopping for the brunch BBQ on the Monday and a few more wedding things. Finally, I was able to relax for a short while in my motel room. This was the view outside – a Maori Waka.

Also saw this – rather apt I thought!

Finally, there were drinks outside Paul and Karen’s room. Just as I was going to it I bumped into Jack and Debra which was great.

It was lovely sitting outside finally relaxing with lots of people. Pete joined us a bit later too.

We were booked into the Thirsty Whale for 7pm so we walked there from the motel.

Paul, Noel, Ian and Mike.

Lynne had thoughtfully decided I needed decorating! Note to self – something about my Christmas card list and removing names 😉

Luckily she had decided the tiara might be a step too far 🙂

This is Pete, me and David at the Thirsty Whale. The pub did a great job of looking after us.

Pete, me and Lynne.

Four from West London Aero Club, White Waltham, UK: David, Pete, Noel and me!

Pete was sitting not far from me and at one point he sat down looking very pleased with himself and told me not to go anywhere! Soon after a Maori teacher came over and said she was with her school Te Aute Anglican Maori Boys College who were doing a fundraiser next door to enable 2 students to go to Japan. Pete had told her we were getting married and that I was from the UK so her students lined up in front of us and belted out 2 songs. When I say ‘belted out’ I really mean that – I’m sure us and all the furniture was moved back a foot or so by the force of their singing! Very impressive.

Spellbound!

Their second song finished with some higher notes at which point they dissolved into laughter and retreated. They were brilliant and deservedly raised more money with donations from our group. Thanks Pete! 🙂

Ian had a trick up his sleeve for Noel…

Ian’s mobile phone was playing ‘Hey Big Spender’ and he had arranged a Stripper…!