We Done Got Hitched!

The day started when the air-raid siren that is our room alarm clock went off at 0500 stopping both Jen and my hearts. After a quick use of the defibrillator, Jen started getting ready and I went back to sleep.

We had breakfast at the hotel restaurant. Jen had French toast and I had the Warners Classic Grill. The Kiwi interpretation of French Toast, by the way, involves piling Canadian bacon and fried bananas on top of the toast. An odd combo, but it sorta worked.

After breakfast, our wedding coordinator, Donna, and her crazy Japanese husband/business partner, Shoei, picked us up to go the the Office of Internal Affairs to get the legal bits out of the way. There, Donna annoyed the nice bureaucrat by committing heinous crimes against spelling on the wedding application. Jen and I had to swear that we were not related in any way (they had a list of several dozen relationships that were forbidden to marry). That done, we headed back to the hotel and Donna made Jen promise to eat (something that, apparently, many brides forget to do).

We had about an hour and a half before the hair and makeup person was going to show up, so we walked around Christchurch for a bit to run some errands and find a bite. We found a bite at a small cafe whose name is escaping both of us at the moment. We both had a "Toasty", which is a fancy way of saying "grilled sammich". Jen had mushrooms and ham, I had chicken and tomatoes. Jen's sarsasparilla beer was way better than my organic apple-black current juice.

The makeup person, Julie-Anne, showed up on time and I (Scott) was banished to the hotel lounge with a book.

Hours passed.

I returned to the room in time to catch the end of Jen's hair and makeup application and for both of us to start getting dressed. Everyone loved both of our costumes, especially Jen's dress. As we exited the hotel to get into the Rolls Royce that was taking us to the heliport, we got a lot of stares from a group of tourists who were boarding a bus right outside the hotel.

The helicopter ride took us to the wedding location: the confluence of the Waimakariri and Esk Rivers in the Southern Alps. It was very windy and we startled a rabbit upon landing. The helicopters landed on a ridge above the rocky riverbed. We hiked up about 100 yards into a field of wild grass and thorny berry bushes that loved Jen's dress and shawl.

And then there was some drama with Jen's belt, the ceremony, some coffee mugs, an exchange of rings, some pictures, some bubbly, some paper work to sign, and we were off again back to the heliport.

The scenery both to and from the location was absolutely breathtaking.

After we returned, we quickly changed into our fancy, shmancy dinner clothes and went to a marvelous dinner at the Curator's House, which was highly recommended by the hotel staff, but not in any of the tour books (which we took to be a very good sign). When the concierge made the booking, apparently they let slip that we were newly weds, so we had a private room on the second floor with wee confetti spelling out "Congratulations" all over the table. I had a porterhouse steak with portabella mushrooms topped with some sort of salsa. Jen had cold marinated venison and a side order of olives. We split a divine Crema Catalana, which is a cinnamon and lemon flavored creme brulee.

And then we walked home and collapsed.

Here is an official wedding picture for your viewing enjoyment. We'll post some that we have taken once we buy a cord that will let us download the pictures from the camera, as I was stupid and did not pack it.