The Gwendan Wedding
Well the wedding plans for Brendan O’Ceallaigh and Gwen Hendry have kicked off. We have managed to locate a lovely church and even looked for a few places for our guests to stay last weekend. This is where we are going to put information that we think of for the wedding to start off with.
Flights: First off, if you have not contacted your travel agency yet, please do it now and book the flights. The wedding is on the3rd of January 2009 which is only 9ish months away. Time is ticking people 
We used Trailfinders and found them good for price but that is only my experience. I have flown Singapore, Malaysian and Emirates to and from NZ and they were all great.
Passport: Make sure your passport is valid for 6 months after the date you plan to leave New Zealand or else they won’t let you in. If you have an Irish Pasport you don’t need to apply for any special visa’s you can just gt a holiday visa on arrival at the airport in New Zealand. This is valid for 3 months according to the New Zealand Immigration website.
Location: The wedding is going to be at Black Barn winery which is located just outside the town of Havelock North in Hawke’s Bay. It is about a 20 minute drive from Napier. Village Info is the unofficial tourism website for Havelock North. Hawkes Bay Tourism is the official website of the region and has loads of useful information.
The Wedding Chruch:
Our Lady of Lourdes Church, 85 Te Mata Rd, Havelock North 4201: http://www.hastingscatholic.org.nz/LocateLourdes.php
The Wedding Reception Venue:
Black Barn Vineyards, Black Barn Road, RD12 Havelock North, Hawkes Bay, New Zealand: http://www.blackbarn.com
Places to Stay:
Wine Country Motor Lodge, Cnr Te Mata and Arataki Roads, Havelock North, Hawkes Bay, New Zealand: http://www.winecountrylodge.com/ This is a very short 10 minute walk from Black Barn, has a pool and is very nice.
The Woolshed Apartments, 106 Te Mata Rd, Havelock North, Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand: http://www.woolshedapartments.co.nz/ This place would be perfect for anyone with a family as you get an entire apartment rather than a room. It is very nice and still very close to Black Barn but you would need to drive.
The AIB Foreign Exchange website is useful for looking at currency rates: http://www.fxcentre.com/exchange_rates.asp