After tragedy tested their romance, helicopter pilot Brian Depauw married his soulmate in a magical European ceremony. Photo / Woman's Day
When Brian Depauw and his girlfriend Jolien De Buyser packed their bags for New Zealand, it felt like the beginning of a great adventure, chasing new experiences on the other side of the world.
What they couldn’t have imagined was how quickly that dream would shatter after the Whakaari/White Island tragedy.
Six years on from the deadly eruption, happiness has blossomed after heartbreak, with the lovebirds recently tying the knot in their romantic home city of Bruges, Belgium.
As they share their fun-filled wedding with Woman’s Day, the couple also reflect on December 9, 2019 – the day tragedy struck while Brian was flying his first unsupervised commercial trip to the island as a new helicopter pilot and tour guide with Volcanic Air.
While finishing up guiding two German couples around the scenic one-hour loop track of the volcano’s main crater, an ominous loud thud signalled the start of the explosion.
“I looked over my shoulder to see a huge plume of ash and debris blasting out of the volcano and racing towards us,” recalls Brian, then 27. “Luckily, we were only a few hundred metres from the helicopter and shoreline, so I told my passengers to run for their lives and get into the water.”
As a terrified Brian reached the end of the jetty, he was hurled into the sea by the force of the eruption. Holding his breath underwater for as long as he could, when he resurfaced, he could see one of the German couples in the water close by, with his other passengers on the jetty, alive but seriously injured.
“I swam back to climb the ladder to help rescue them and the other badly injured survivors who were stumbling towards me,” Brian recalls.
Of the 47 people on the island that day, 22 died and 25 were injured, many suffering catastrophic third-degree burns. A tour boat that had left the island before the eruption came back to transport the injured on a 90-minute mercy dash to the mainland.
After an anxious wait, Jolien, then 21, was relieved to be reunited with her partner at Whakatāne Hospital. Although he escaped with just a strained back muscle and a cut on his knee, the emotional toll of the day caught up with him once they returned home.
“That’s when I finally broke down,” he shares.
Brian, now 33, says the devastating events were tough on their still-new relationship.
“We’d been together less than a year when the disaster happened, and we lost our innocence and the fun of a young romance on that day.”
There were more challenges ahead, with Covid hitting a few months later. Although the couple decided to stay in Aotearoa, Brian’s work as a pilot quickly dried up. It wasn’t until 2023 when he returned to flying that he finally started to “find myself” again.
Thankfully, the couple’s loving bond navigated them through the tough times and two years ago, Brian popped the question to Jolien, now 27.
In Belgium, most couples marry in a short ceremony at their local city hall, which in the couple’s hometown is a stunning medieval building.
“You usually have about 15 minutes before the next bride, groom and their guests arrive,” shares Jolien, who looked beautiful in an A-line gown with white gloves and a long veil. “I didn’t want that, so we asked the courthouse if we could be last. We had our own celebrant and our ceremony went for nearly an hour.”
That evening, the newlyweds were the centre of a joy-filled celebration with around 230 family members and friends.
Brian, who opted for a striking mint-green suit for their nuptials, grins, “It was such a good party. We didn’t have our wedding dance until 1am, which was great as the pressure was off!”
Jolien adds, “I can’t remember much about the day at all and was sure we’d forgotten our dance steps until we got the video back a week later. We’d done really well!”
After travelling the world for Brian’s job, the couple has made their home base in Bruges, where Jolien is a financial adviser, runs a campground with her family and works as an artist. Brian is currently on a five-week-on, five-week-off contract as a utility pilot in Papua New Guinea.
“Our wedding is the start of a whole new chapter,” says Brian. “We’re excited to have a peaceful life, a certain amount of adventure and to grow old together. We’d love to do a bike tour around New Zealand and are in the early stages of looking at how it could raise money to link back to White Island, perhaps to support people dealing with ongoing trauma.”