The wedding/Te ra marena.

What we travelled around the world to attend to, a real Maori wedding. I was asked to be the best man and I can't refuse this to my best man. You see Honiana is my best man from nearly 20 years back, I am still married, Honiana ;ø)
We are in Te Tii up north on the North Island.

Since this is a Maori wedding there are some rules we must follow in the Marai, all of the guests are to wait outside of the gate. We must wait to be called upon, the ladies goes first, followed by the gents. For me, this is a happening for life and I nearly can't manage to hold back my tears, biting in my lips didn't do the trick. For me the velcoming song/Karanga type was a once in the lifetime experience. As we walked in to the marai with the elderly in back and Howie the pastor in the middle of the ails.

Honiana and Amber, she is quite good looking

Honiana to the left and the Norwegian to the right quite adorable or what?

Since I am the best man, I had to stand in front of all the beautiful people gathering here today, of course with Honiana by my left side and Marias oldest son Liam at my right hand side. I had the precious rings in my pocket (another LOTHR saying there)
There were more welcoming in Maori and I felt the tear pressing once again, for me this was like being on a small island in the pacific, and that is exactly what it was, but it wasn't a small island it is the New Zealand North island.
Howie mentions in his speech the dress Amber and I was wearing, the Vestfold bunad and we felt both proud of this, actually he mentioned it 2 or 3 times. It was now time for the bride to come inside and we heard the bagpipes, Maria har Scottish ancestor. Wow when she arrived in tears with her father in her right arm, I started crying again and Liam was in tears as well. Can't blame him for this, cause this was a beautiful moment for all of us. Howie had some nice thing to say to the couple, but I can't remember it all.

In the background you she the lady that did the Karanga, man this was so cool.

The whole happening was so overwhelming for me, I'm speechless.

Maria you are the sweetest bride ever.

This is pure beauty. Brie-Ann Timings took the official photos. This one is mine.  ;ø) 

Then there was cake.

This was picked in the garden, remember it is mid winter down here.

One blonde lager for the blonde guy from Norway.

I had prepared a speech and I was the first to go, think it went ok and I also did a Norwegian song two verses of the old bitch with a stick. Actually I hope some have a small video of it, I forgot to tell Amber to record it..... That is actually the first time I have done a song in public, I don't even sing in the bathtub. And even if you have some photos of Amber and myself in the traditional dresses we would love to see some of them. A dream came true this day, thank you all.