Northern Advocate
  • Northern Advocate home
  • Latest news
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Sport
  • Property
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
  • Sport
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings

Locations

  • Far North
  • Kaitaia
  • Kaikohe
  • Bay of Islands
  • Whangārei
  • Kaipara
  • Mangawhai
  • Dargaville

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Kaitaia
  • Whangārei
  • Dargaville

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Northern Advocate

Tourists' wedding snap in the Bay of Islands links couples across the world

By Peter Jackson
Editor·Northern Advocate·
19 Apr, 2020 07:00 PM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Pete and Jacqui's happy day as captured by a couple of tourists from Wales. Photo / Mike and Carol Wallace

Pete and Jacqui's happy day as captured by a couple of tourists from Wales. Photo / Mike and Carol Wallace

One of the highlights of a holiday in New Zealand for a Welsh couple was a wedding on the foreshore in Russell.

They weren't invited — they were simply in the right place at the right time — but they couldn't resist taking photos.

And now Mike and Carol Wallace have shared those photos with the happy couple.

Mike and Carol contacted the Northland Age, hoping they could identify the bride and groom, and it didn't take much detective work to find Pete and Jacqui Jones, courtesy of Russell resident Sue Western.

READ MORE:
• Covid 19 coronavirus: Lockdown no barrier to Kiwi couple's front lawn wedding
• Northland couple celebrating Sapphire Anniversary say they hardly argue
• Covid 19 coronavirus: 14 more cases linked to Bluff wedding
• Covid 19 coronavirus: Bluff wedding cluster - half of guests sick, venue owner says precautions didn't make a 'jot of difference'

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Mike and Carol said they had spent eight weeks in New Zealand, something they had wanted to do since they met 13 years ago, their itinerary including five days in the Bay of Islands, staying just outside Paihia.

"At our age neither of us are up to the wonderful treks and hikes, so we took the ferry across to Russell, and enjoyed the day so much that we took two further trips just to bask in the ambience of the place," they said.

"On our final day in Russell we were walking along the harbour front when we came across a wedding being held in a large garden, and, being tourists, we took a few pictures to remind ourselves of the day in Russell.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"On our return to North Wales we purchased a digital frame so we could relive the wonderful times in New Zealand through a rolling display of the photographs (all 958 of them), and every time the pictures of the wedding appeared we thought we should somehow share them with the bride and groom, so we set out on a quest to see if we could locate the happy couple."

It had been a "a bit of a mission," but eventually the Northland Age pointed them in Pete and Jacqui's direction, and contact between photographers and subjects was made this week.

Pete and Jacqui were delighted to hear from the Wallaces, and to see their photographs.
"I live in Russell, and have done so for some 15 years," Pete said.

"Jacqui still has her own house at a beach west of Auckland, but we're locked down in Russell. That is no great hardship. In fact we returned here from honeymoon half an hour before the Prime Minister declared the lockdown commencing, so in a way it's been a soft landing from honeymoon."

Discover more

'Enjoy your love' - couple celebrating 65th wedding anniversary

14 Feb 11:00 PM

Town opens doors to children after school fire

25 Mar 05:00 PM

Eco-sanctuary hatching plans for rare wildlife

08 Apr 12:00 AM

Kamo couple celebrates diamond anniversary with cake during lockdown

14 Apr 11:00 PM

The honeymoon had not been without a small glitch or two. The 38ft keelboat they had borrowed from a friend developed some electrical issues that forced them to return to the marina, but they compensated for that by taking a couple of Pete's motorbikes on a slow tour of Northland for the rest of their planned time away.

And the two couples made an instant connection.

"Jacqui is English herself, and every couple of years we go to the UK to stay with family and do a bit of travelling. Last year we also hired a boat and spent six days cruising the Thames," Pete said.

And there was more.

"My own family is from North Wales," he added.

"My paternal grandfather was from Welshpool; he went across the border to secondary school in Shrewsbury, and later served his apprenticeship there. One of my fonder memories from a few years ago was spending an evening singing my heart out in a pub in Welshpool."

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Meanwhile, Mike and Carol got home just before their lockdown began.

"We are now in a three-week, soon to be extended, stay-at-home period," Mike said.

"I have noted with great pleasure that the (Covid-19) death rate in New Zealand is currently quite low compared to ours, about 250 in Wales, although our area in the north of Wales seems to have relatively few cases."

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Northern Advocate

Premium
Opinion

Opinion: Endless tourist tours are our modern purgatory

20 Jun 05:00 PM
Northern Advocate

Why kiwi deaths on roads highlight a conservation success story

20 Jun 02:00 AM
Northern Advocate

Rewi Spraggon explains Puanga, Matariki’s older brother

19 Jun 10:00 PM

Jono and Ben brew up a tea-fuelled adventure in Sri Lanka

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Northern Advocate

Premium
Opinion: Endless tourist tours are our modern purgatory

Opinion: Endless tourist tours are our modern purgatory

20 Jun 05:00 PM

Apparently elsewhere in Norway there’s a town called simply 'Hell'.

Why kiwi deaths on roads highlight a conservation success story

Why kiwi deaths on roads highlight a conservation success story

20 Jun 02:00 AM
Rewi Spraggon explains Puanga, Matariki’s older brother

Rewi Spraggon explains Puanga, Matariki’s older brother

19 Jun 10:00 PM
Our top Premium stories this year: Special offer for Herald, Viva, Listener

Our top Premium stories this year: Special offer for Herald, Viva, Listener

19 Jun 08:11 PM
Help for those helping hardest-hit
sponsored

Help for those helping hardest-hit

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • The Northern Advocate e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Northern Advocate
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The Northern Advocate
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP