A new beginning..

As Mrs/Dr Kelly. Haha. Still not used to it yet. January 3rd saw Mike and I getting married in beautiful Wanaka, New Zealand. We had an outdoor ceremony at the Lookout Lodge, which is high up in the mountains with stunning views.
My original weather request was a beautiful blue, sunny day with a covering of snow over the mountains (yep in the middle of summer). When we first arrived it was lovely, with warm days and lots of sun (Christmas was quite hot). However, after Christmas it started to rain. And rain. And rain. The place where we arranged to have pictures was under 1m of water.. we had our wedding rehearsal the day before in pouring rain. It was miserable. I was having kittens. Looking at the weather forecast every 10 mins.. all 5 of them. Everyone kept assuring me it would be nice whatever the weather.. rain good luck.. yadda yadda. Whatever. I wanted a fine day!! I went to bed on the 2nd and it was BUCKETING down. Got very little sleep as I listened to the rain hammering on the roof...
I must have fallen asleep at some stage as I woke up at 6am to hear... nothing. Blessed silence! I held my breath as I opened the curtains and saw.. a blue sky! Well blue-ish, anyway. More blue than grey. AND once the clouds lifted we discovered that since it was unseasonably cold (17 degree top!) the rain the previous night had meant snow on the mountains! Wow- talk about lucky.
By the time we had finished getting ready, the sun was out and the sky was blue. It was FREEZING and windy as anything, but it was NOT raining and there was snow on the mountains. I was happy!

The ceremony went well and the venue looked lovely. The speeches were got through and we remembered nearly all of our fairly adventurous first dance. All in all it was a lovely wedding (from what I heard..haha) and  the nicest thing was the effort so many people made to get there. We had Mike's brother come all the way from LA, and lots of people from Perth, as well as the rest of my family from Auckland. Lovely to have everyone there.

After the wedding, Mike and I ventured up to Nelson where we spent an enjoyable 4 days exploring the 2 national parks, Able Tasman and the Queen Charlotte Sounds. Incredible, stunning  scenery (we rapidly ran out of adjectives to describe them!)

 Then it was off to far away Orlando, Florida, to go and see the House of the Mouse. Walt Disney World was definitely worth the 40 hours it took to get there.. it was great. Out of the 4 theme parks Mike and I both liked the Magic Kingdom the best.

 Such amazing attention to detail..from the intricate frescoes of Liberty Square to the rustic Swiss Family treehouse in Frontierland, we loved it.

 And the snacks in the park where incredible.. we loved the Dole Whip, Funnel cakes and sticky cinnamon rolls on offer. On the last night we did a (hard to get reservations for) Wishes Dessert Party which was probably a highlight. Unobstructed water views of the castle with the 2 shows, and an all you can eat dessert bar with creme brulee, fruit tarts, mango shooters, chocolate mousse, banaoffee and so much more.. was a perfect ending to a good (if busy!) trip.

Now we are back in sunny (way too sunny) Perth for another year with most definitely memories to last a lifetime (until the next FamilyMoon!)