Week Thirteen: Weddings and wineries

I have to admit that these aren't my photos - when I met the girls from work (as opposed to the working girls) for lunch at Joe's Garage in Wellington, I had forgotten my camera. Fortunately someone else had hers so was able to record our meeting and eating (including chips and gravy - a fantastic find at only $4.50!)

I didn't actually go for many runs while I was in Wellington, but I did get up Wright's Hill on one of those infamous 'good days' and had some superlative views of the scenery and the gun emplacements.

We went to celebrate the wedding of our friends in the Wairarapa and stayed in a charming boutique hotel called Aylstone.

The day before the wedding, we went for a stroll around Martinborough and encountered an excellent shop called Gertrude Snyder. Set off the main square, it is an antique shop in a house and everything is laid out lovingly in the correct rooms.

And so to the wedding, which was beautiful, as weddings of friends are. It was also a wonderful opportunity to catch up with a load of Wellington folk we miss down south all looking gorgeous in their finery and frocks.

We moved inside for the speeches and the dinner; the dancing and the drinking. People stopped looking quite so tidy and began looking rather shiny. There is a moment in every evening where the tide turns; I think it began at this point.

There were still a few 'formal moments' such as the serving of the cake (cute little cupcakes with miniatiare rosebuds in the icing with raspberries, strawberries and cream) and the first dance - A Crazy Little Thing Called Love.

The next morning at Cafe Medici there are stories over coffee of misplaced mobile phones and floating underpants. Some people are feeling fine and eating healthy breakfasts while others need something more substantial to start their day.