Covid 19 coronavirus: 'I want to look back at that day, not everything after it': Couple at centre of Bluff cluster share their story

The newlyweds at the centre of a Covid-19 cluster that mushroomed into one of New Zealand's biggest had just begun their married life together when they found a out of one their guests had tested positive for the virus.

Betty and Manoli Tzanoudakis wed at Bluff's Oyster Cove Restaurant and Bar on March 21, before gatherings were limited.

Ninety-eight cases of Covid-19 were ultimately connected to their wedding.

Four days after they tied the knot, New Zealand went into lockdown.

On March 26, one of the 70 guests to attend the Tzanoudakis' wedding rang to say he had tested positive for Covid-19.

An Air New Zealand flight attendant, he told guests at the wedding he had returned to New Zealand from a work flight from the United States just days before, according to a Herald source who did not want to be named.

The Ministry of Health told the Herald that an overseas travel link had been established to just one person who attended the wedding.

TO READ THE HERALD'S FULL CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE CLICK HERE

By the end of the week, both the bride and groom had tested positive for the coronavirus, they told Newshub's Patrick Gower in his On Lockdown documentary.

"It just felt like a normal flu," Betty said.

But for her husband, it wasn't.

"It was worse than anything I've ever had in my life," he said.

Less than a week after their wedding, Manoli's father, Chrisanthos (Christo) Tzanoudakis fell ill with the virus.

A widower and father of two originally from Crete, he'd lived in Wellington for 50 years.

"I want to look back at that day, not everything after it," Betty told Patrick Gower in his 'On Lockdown' documentary.

The 87-year-old was admitted to Wellington Hospital two days after showing symptoms of Covid-19.

Manoli, who told Newshub his father was his "best friend", recounted seeing his sick father in hospital, pulling the oxygen tubes out of his nose because he was in so much pain.

"Stay strong and we'll get through it," Manoli told him in Greek.

Those were the last words he said to his father, he told Newshub.

Christo Tzanoudakis, who had been planning to move back to Greece after attending his son's wedding, died in hospital on April 10.

He was one of New Zealand's 22 deaths related to the virus.

‌

The Tzanoudakis said they didn't blame their wedding guest, who later said he was not unwell during the reception, for what happened.

"I'm not putting the blame on anyone," said Manoli, who instead "blamed the virus" for what became, until recently, New Zealand's largest Covid-19 cluster.

"I want to look back at that day, not everything after it," Betty said.

An Air New Zealand spokesman said the cabin crew member did not fall ill until arriving home from the wedding.

Air crew were, at the time of the wedding, exempt from self-isolating after arriving back from working overseas, as long as they adhered to strict Ministry of Health guidelines regarding hygiene and the use of personal protective equipment (PPE), the spokesman said.

Ninety-eight cases of Covid-19 were ultimately connected to the wedding. Photo / File

The crew member later issued a statement through Air New Zealand, saying he was believed to be asymptomatic and potentially carrying the virus while at the wedding.

"Air New Zealand's employee, as all operating cabin crew, adhered to the Ministry of Health's guidance which includes hygiene and PPE measures," the statement said.

"Our colleague is deeply upset by what has happened and the implication in comments published in the media that he did anything wrong."

‌