Abel Tasman and Engagement!

FINALLY, the time had come to ask Bridget if she would like to marry me (after a game of force-back with a hacky-sack of course).

I asked Bridget if she'd like to go for a wander down the beach with me, packing a bottle of water in my backpack which contained the card I planned on giving her before I proposed (after much contemplation, I decided that I wanted to go ring hunting with Bridget rather than pick one out for her). Down the beach, we found this awesome spot:

IMG_5723 engagement location (Large).jpg

I sat Bridget down, said that I had a present for her, gave her the card I made for her, got down on one knee and asked her, she said YES, WOO HOO!!!!

Here's the very first engagement picture of us:

after lots of hugs and kisses we wandered back to the others and told them the fantastic news, here's a group photo of us all:

Me, my fiancï¿½e Bridget, Kim, Ellie, Craig, Stu, Mel and Finn:

One last snap by Apple Tree Bay before we left:

One last snap of Apple Tree Bay as we wandered back up in to the bush:

Another snap of a silver fern, with my fiancï¿½e Bridget:

Another scenic snap:

The last stretch of walkway:

Then it was back to the batch, for a few glasses of bubbly and some back yard cricket to celebrate, under a fantastic rainbow:

We went down to the restaurant at the waterfront for dinner and were treated firstly to another awesome rainbow at the beginning of our meal:

IMG_5788 Bridget and I with rainbow in background (Medium).JPG

Followed by a brilliant moon rise after the tide came back in at the end of dinner:

Finally, to round the day off in style, a few games on the Wii with the guys:

Next day we hired a boat to get some more sightseeing and wakeboarding done:

Split Apple rock:

Everyone bundled up in the back of the boat:

We had great weather while we were there:

and crystal clear water:

and packed beaches to stop at for lunch:

Ellie making a sandcastle:

And a few wakeboarding pics, some of me getting a wee bit of air...

...skimming the water...

...and seeing a big fish that required me to slam face first in to the water to try and catch:

Stu getting some air...

...and finding out that wakeboards don't work on their edge:

And Mel (zipping past our camp on the beach):

After grabbing a bunch of muscles and cooking them up on the BBQ, we were treated to one awesome sunset:

The next day, it was back out on the boat again for some fishing! We brought Mr Marrow along this time to pilot for us:

Although we did let him do some fishing as well:

We got some Warehouse hand lines to use, although I nabbed the fishing line. Here's Bridge out from Fisherman Island:

Stu got a wee nipper:

so did Craig:

and Bridget got the biggest one:

All I managed to get was attacked by a starfish while I went diving for more muscles to use as bait:

Back to the beach for lunch, Kim with Ellie after she had eaten a scone with jam and cream:

Which amused Finn to no end:

And we were again treated to some fantastic weather for our last day (for Bridget and I) in Abel Tasman (here's Kaiteriteri beach)

Notice that extra gay run by Craig in the bottom left of the pic above? No?! Well here's a close-up for you:

And I'll leave you with a lovely soppy pic of the happily engaged couple :-)

Abel Tasman, awesome place to pop the question!