Saturday, January 24, 2009

Josh & Anouska's Wedding Pictures

All of Josh & Anouska's Wedding Pictures

Josh & Anouska's Wedding


Josh & Anouska's Wedding 1


This is a link to a web album containing all of the pictures I took for Josh & Anouska's Wedding.

Enjoy!

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Time To Go Home

So we have no pictures today. We went snorkeling yesterday so those pictures are on a film camera. We will get those up when we get home. We leave Tahiti at 11:30 local time tonight. When we get home will we post more pictures from the trip. If there is something you want to see more of just leave us a comment or send us an email.

Monday, January 19, 2009

Put the Lime in the Coconut

This post goes out to Ethan Carrel. He said it was a must to drink a drink out of a coconut. Well we can now check that one off of our list. Enjoying the coconut drink at the Tiki Bar at our hotel. You can also see a picture of our bungalow on the bottom. The other picture in the group is the two bays that surround Papeete. Papeete is the capital city and one of the largest in the island chains. We are headed downtown right now to do a little shopping.

Trip around Tahiti


Click to Enlarge

So today we took a tour around the island. Stopping at all sorts of points of interest. We also learned some history of the island including Captain Cook and the history of the Bounty. These are a few pictures of blooming flowers around the island. Also stopped at a local waterfall. If you look closely you can actually see us at the bottom. Tomorrow we are headed to town. Going to tour the pearl museum and markets downtown. Hoping Greg will let me come home with a famous Black Pearl.

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Beautiful Water and Sunsets

Click on picture to enlarge

So I couldn't imagine water that could be any more colorful. I only hope that the pictures do it justice. Just can't even describe the color. Greg and I had a chance to sleep in this morning and that felt great. This is a picture of Greg and I off our front porch facing the ocean. We absolutely love our room.

Saturday - Take 2


So yes Greg and I had the luxury to enjoy 2 Saturdays in one week. The first one was spent at Josh's Wedding and the second one in Tahiti enjoying a Polynesian Show at our hotel. We had a really enjoyable night. Greg got called out to dance on stage...to funny! We both posed with some of the dancers. You can also see a picture I caught of the fire thrower. Anyways the water is warm, blue as can be and we are totally enjoying ourselves. Relaxing in the sun! This afternoon we are taking a tour around the island. Tomorrow we hope to head into town to shop some of their local markets and then spend the afternoon snorkeling at the Lagoon near the island of Moorea.

More Reception Photos


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These are some more pictures from the reception - the cake table, American "candy" bar, the head table, and tossing the bouquet

Reception - Hammerheads


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This is a few pictures from the reception at Hammerheads. Family and friends that we enjoying the evening celebrating with the new Mr & Mrs Josh Wheatley!

Pictures at the Point

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This were taken at the point just around the corner from the reception at Hammerheads. If you look closely in the group shots of them walking you can see the Auckland Skyline. Perfect location for pictures - absolutely beautiful.

Pictures in Downtown Auckland

This was the first stop for Josh & Anouska to take some pictures. They really turned out well. Can't wait to show you more!

Family Photos


These are a few pictures taken after the ceremony right outside the church. If you click on the picture you will be able to few it much larger. Once we get home to faster internet we will post more photos.

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Wedding Ceremony

The Guy's Before The Wedding



Hello Evevryone!!! Stacey and I have made are way from New Zealand to Tahiti. So the internet connection is slow, so the pictures will be smaller. Just click on them and you should be able to see them larger. Enjoy!!!

Friday, January 16, 2009

The Night Before





Dinner





Wedding Time





Today is a busy day. So not much writing under the pics. These will be the last we post in New Zealand, we will try to get the wedding pics up in Tahiti!

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Group Dinner Out

Katie & Brian
Brooke & Kyle

Anouska & Her Mom (Susie)

We had a great evening out to dinner. Perfect weather for dinning outside. This was Brooke & Kyle's first night in Auckland. They just flew in from Sydney. Tomorrow starts all of the wedding festivities. The rehearsal starts at 10:30am and then all of the tuxes will have to be picked up. Greg scheduled a pedicure for me tomorrow afternoon. Come to find out all of the groomsmen are have a spa afternoon as well. That ought to be really funny!! Never, ever thought I would see Greg come anywhere near a spa. Then tomorrow evening we will be having a rehearsal dinner at one of Anouska's Aunts Home in Auckland.

Well I better hit the hay. It's almost 1am here. We have to get up early in the morning to return the rental car.

Tane Mahute - Big Tree in the Woods

So after leaving the Bay of Islands area, we decided to head back down the West Coast of New Zealand. We drove up the East coast this morning and thought we would really get good bang for our buck by checking out what the West coast had to offer. So we heard about some huge tress and the rain forest and thought that sounded interesting.
So this is Greg and I in front of the "big tree" or Tane Mahute. This tree is ~42 feet in diameter. It is enormous and the picture doesn't even do it justice. The drive was beautiful. The rain forrest is literally right next to the road. We all decided that my forarms from driving will have to be sore tomorrow. We haven't been on a curvery section of road. I can't even describe how curvy one road could be. It was a long day on the road, but worth every minute!
Bruce in front of the "big tree"

Bay of Islands - Hole in Rock

So this morning we decided to get up early and head up to the Bay of Island. Took us about 3 hours to get up there from Auckland. Pretty drive on the way up. We have now learned that there are no straight roads in New Zealand. Decided to take a speed boat ride to the Hole in the Rock.
This is a picture of Bruce (Josh - the groom's dad), Greg and I. This picture was taken right before they drove the boat through the hole. It was really impressive. There were 6 foot swells while we were out there today. It definitely took some good boat driving to get us through. The water in the Bay of Islands is so brillant. Very hard to describe and I am sure the pictures don't do it justice.
This is a picture from the back of the boat called the Excitor before we drove through the hole. You can see how rough the water is. We were really lucky that we actually were able to drive through it. Sometimes the seas get so rough that water actually hits the top of the hole. It was a very fun, very fast boat ride. This area of New Zealand is absolutely stunning!

Wai - O -Tapu

So this morning we thought we would check out the Lady Knox geyser just outside Rotorua. Greg and I were discussing how cool geyser are because they naturally blow and who unpredictable they can be, etc. So the Lady Knox geyser goes off everyday at 10:15am, pretty predictable, huh. Well comes to find out they actually make the geyser blow by adding a surfactant. They are stilling really intriguing, but now Greg thinks that every geyser is operated by some small man still in the bush. Guess we will have to check out Yellowstone and see some real geysers.
This is a picture of me in front of a hot pool beautiful colors.
Greg and I on our hike around the park. There was all sorts of neat things to see like sulfer caves, bubbling mud pots, and geysers.

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Polynesian Spa - Rotorua

Enjoying a mineral spa in Rotorua. Thought we should slow down a little and relax. Had a view of the Rotorua Lake which is a sulfur lake from all the geothermal activity in the area.
Our own personal stone spa.
View from our spa. You can see in the distance the steam rising off the lake.

Spending the night in Rotorua. We plan to go see some of the geothermal activity in the morning. Hoping to see a geyser erupt tomorrow morning around 10am.

Huka Falls Video

This is a video from our jet boat ride. The ride was unbelievable. I can't even describe how close we would come to hitting things. We were also treated to several "bat turns" or a 360' spin in the boat. Greg took some tips from the driver and can't wait to get home and start practicing in our boat.

Taupo - Huka Falls

Thought we needed another adrenaline rush today so we stopped in Taupo to take a jet boat ride. But this is no ordinary jet boat ride.
This is a picture of the boat we rode on. Greg is already getting ideas....scary!
This is Huka Falls. It was pretty impressive and the water couldn't have been a more brilliant blue.

Glow Worms - I don't think so

This is a picture of Stacey "testing out her tube". There are several waterfalls inside of the cave. We had to learn the proper way to place the tube on your "bum" and jump off backwards. I knew the water would be cold, but it was a little surprising how cold it actually was. Thank goodness for the wet suit.
This is the exit of the cave.
Not a very good picture, but this is Greg and I floating out of the cave together. This was a truly unique experience.
So these little specks are the glow worms. Well they actually aren't glow worms at all - false advertising. We found out that they are actually maggots. These maggots live in the cave and drop spider-web-like strings to catch their food. They have no way to excrete their waste (aka poop) so they actually burn it off and thus the glow. It was really cool (literally) to float through a pitch dark cave and see these glowing all around.