This weekend James and I took off to the South Island for a friends wedding. The sun was shining, the views were spectacular…and the company wasn’t too bad either 🙂
Friday
As we left Wellington the weather was stunning; we had bright sunshine and hardly a cloud in the sky. I even ventured to the outside decks, (something I’m not usually keen to do) and laid in the sun for ages! It was quite nice to just chill out in the sun, the wind in my hair.
Arriving in Picton, we drove straight from the ferry to the wedding venue, Te Mahia Bay Resort.
In order to get there, we took the scenic route along Queen Charlotte Drive, then turned off to Te Mahia along Kenepuru Road. The route there is literally one long windy road lined with gorgeous native forest and amazing views, a few little hubs of bach’s thrown in for good measure.
Queen Charlotte Drive is described as:
one of the most scenic drives you’re likely to encounter.
100% Pure New Zealand
It’s one of the main roads leading out of Picton, through the Queen Charlotte Sound, however, most people take the road to Blenheim, so you don’t come across massive droves of tourists or traffic. The roads are paved and wide, which leads to some fun driving round the winding roads, sweeping corners and switchbacks. Add in the viewpoints, the aqua sea and the sunshine and you’d be forgiven for thinking you were a million miles away.
If you want to head up towards Te Mahia Bay, as we did, you turn off at Kenepuru Road. It’s about twenty minutes in. These roads are not heavily travelled, and although still paved, are a lot harder on the driver than Queen Charlotte Drive. Some of the corners are a bit hairy and most of the route is sheltered by the trees and native bush. The route is often narrow and the road winds around sharp corners with steep gradients leading into switchback after switchback.
We eventually arrived at Te Mahia after 7pm, ready for dinner with everyone.
Te Mahia Bay Resort is really cute. It’s set alongside the sea, with epic views of the mountains and the sky.
It has little bach-style rooms complete with driftwood signs and jandal guest books.
The deck at the front of each room makes it feel really summery.
Saturday
We woke up to an overcast day, which made me slightly sad!
We realised that we’d forgotten to buy a wedding card for our friends, so had to trek (not actually trek, we went in a motor vehicle) to Picton and back! We had brunch while we were there, so it wasn’t a complete failure.
Picton was FULL of cruise ship tourists. It was quite interesting to see the huge ships on the horizon, as Picton on a normal day looks like a sleepy little coastal fishing town. When the cruise ships are in, however, it’s swarming with people.
Arriving back to Te Mahia the sun came out. Everyone was into the full swing of getting ready for the wedding, so we joined in an popped on our glad rags. I think you’ll agree, we look fairly Rock’N’Roll.
The service itself was set up on an upper deck so we were all looking out over the sea as we watched our friends (Alice and Kris) say their vows. We were seated in short rows on well varnished wooden benches in front of a wooden archway decorated with pretty summery flowers. There was an acoustic set playing as we gathered and waited for the service to begin.
Three gorgeous bridesmaids, dressed in silver 1920’s inspired, figure-hugging dresses walked down the aisle before Alice. They had a small bouquet each and sparkled in the sunshine.
As Alice walked down the aisle between us all, she had the biggest smile i’ve ever seen. It was like it would never fade!
After some readings, and the formal vows, the celebrant took the couple to sign the register before announcing them to us. In a (really not surprising but quite cool) turn of events, he took her name! How lovely.
Following the service, we had a leisurely cocktail hour(s) where photos were taken, nibbles were eaten and suntan lotion was liberally applied.
There were some lawn games set out, so never being one to turn down a silly time, I set up the Petanque. I failed miserably to wow everyone with my mad Petanque skills, but still had fun anyway!
At the reception we ate lamb, chicken and loads of veggies. It’s actually nice to go to a wedding and get real food, instead of the fancy food that most people serve. Give me a hearty bit of lamb or some tacos any day!
Following our feast, we danced the night away.
Sunday
Waking up I honestly felt like i’d had a great nights sleep! In reality I had gone to bed relatively early, been woken up by James’s snoring multiple times, been woken up as the others sharing our flat had come home, AND needed about ten toilet stops during the night.
However, I woke up feeling refreshed and not even the slightest bit hung over. Yay.
As each of the rooms had a small kitchen, everyone chipped in (well mostly everyone) to help make breakfast. There were breakfast muffins, eggs, bacon and plenty of tea, and as far as i could tell it was going down very well.
I really found it nice to chill out together with everyone the morning after the wedding. The newlyweds were there pitching in and everyone was chatting and chilling out together.
James and I had to leave relatively early in order to catch our ferry home. Well, I say early, we were booked onto the 2:00pm ferry. However, we wanted to take the longer route home through Blenheim to see the scenic route 🙂
So instead of going straight back to Picton the way we’d come on Friday, we instead took the remainder of the Queen Charlotte Drive to Havelock, then turned up towards Blenheim, through to Picton.
Even the long way round got us to the ferry terminal quite early!
The crossing was mostly fine, however, as we came into Wellington Harbour, we had to take a wide berth to avoid a huge container ship. This meant that our ferry was rocking dramatically for quite a while. I was trying to sleep but it didn’t really work!
Overall a lovely weekend spent having fun with lovely people 🙂
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