Its the wedding day and all systems are go. The wedding is at 2pm so the girls are busy with hair, makeup and nails. All the neccessary preperations to make the day special. Being male it is all a mystery to me so James and I took ourselves away for a walk along the beach.
Its a long sweeping expanse of sand with sporadic Tiki,s spaced along the foreshore. Keeping a close eye on the clock we wandered a while and made our way back to the house. Things were in full swing so the boys kept out of the way until it was time to go to the venue. In truth it was very calm and sedate. Kiwi,s as a rule are pretty laid back and theres not much rush in them.
The wedding was perfect. Beautiful location, perfect weather. Great people.
Everyone was very friendly and welcoming. Locwoods family is large and greatly outnumbered the small UK contingent but It was nice to finally meet all the people that we have heard Lynn, Anna and Locwood talk so much about.
Anna was the perfect bride and Locwood the dashing groom in his Maori cloak and adidas trainers.
A very pleasent evening was spent talking and meeting people. Crispy was in her element. Some of Locwoods family had been diving and caught crayfish, paua and kina for a seafood table. We have had crayfish and paua before and both are really good. The kina is a different story. It is sea urchin and a Maori delicacy. It is the yellow tongues from inside the hard black shell. It looks bad and tastes interesting. Cold, slimy and very fishy. Not my favourite delicacy by any stretch of the imagination.
As if this wasn't enough we were warned only to eat a little as it would cause a runny bottom and horrendous offensive farts. My advice guys is to give it up and stick to chip shop fish.. You know it makes sense and there really is no need to eat that stuff if other less hazardous options are available.
After dinner, which was excellent, came the speeches and Lynn delivered her speech in Maori which was very much appreciated by Locwoods family. After the speeches came the Haka. It went quiet and a group of guys, including Locwoods brothers and father, approached the top table and called him out. They then gave a very aggresive haka warning Locwood not to disrespect his new wife or family. It was quite chilling to watch and you could feel the energy and passion. Again it was a priveledge to be able to witness this very special occasion. I didn't know but there are numerous haka for different situations. Its not all about rugby it seems.
After the haka things resumed to normal and a great evening was spent in the company of our new extended family. Tomorrow James and I are heading 3 hours north to the bay of islands to try and catch some red snapper for the bbq on saturday. I hope we catch because I have a sneaky feeling that kina is going to be on the menu......
Bare and Crispy, Omaha beach, NZ
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