Thursday, November 01, 2012

The Long Weekend

Hello friends

During the long weekend of the 26th - 29th October we celebrated several wonderful family occasions. Starting with my cousin Vanessa's 21st on the Friday evening:


Hannah with Vanessa, she's a beautiful young lady


Vanessa's birthday cake made by my very talented cousin Donna


Myself with my dear cousins Odette, Vanessa and Donna


Some of the beautiful flowers that were throughout the hall

We had a wonderful evening and were even treated to a fireworks display. 

The next day there was a family reunion to attend, for the descendants of the Fletcher family, who settled at Pendle Hill, Wakarara, Central Hawkes Bay, 150 years ago. My great great grandparents, Samuel and Harriet Fletcher, were both born in Lancashire, England, and had both emigrated to New Zealand with their families. They were married in Wellington in 1866 and they went on to have 13 children, including my great grandfather William who was a twin.

Their farm and homestead was named Pendle Hill after the area in Lancashire where Samuel grew up.


the Reunion cake



The site of the reunion, Pendle Hill, Onga Onga, right beneath the Ruahine Ranges


Donna and I


niece Zoe, Hannah and I with our cousin Chelsea, from Melbourne, Australia

My maternal great great grandparents, Samuel and Harriet Fletcher, with their large family



My maternal great grandfather William



The cairn that is now in place where the family homestead used to be 


A painting of the homestead

This was an excellent day, with over 250 people in attendance, including 25 of my direct family. There was the cutting of the cake, a picnic for lunch, games and running races for the children, family photos, then a barbeque dinner to finish the day.  

Sunday we celebrated my cousin Chelsea's 10th birthday, who was visiting with my auntie, uncle and her little brother from Melbourne for the week.  Once again Donna came up with the most amazing cake for Chelsea, a pair of jandals!


Then finally on the Monday, Glenn and I celebrated our seventh wedding anniversary, can't believe its been seven years already!


We've been sweethearts since the week I turned 16, seems like so long ago :)


Thanks for stopping by xx

8 comments:

Elizabeth said...

What fabulous photos. What a great weekend you had.

Chris said...

What an amazing weekend!
Happy Anniversary!

Shirlee said...

Wonderful photos! What a great time!

Kathy A. said...

What a wonderful weekend that must have been. All those amazing celebrations.
I love the photos of your heritage. The guys sure have some impressive moustaches!
Happy Anniversary!

Vickie said...

Congratulations on 7 years of marriage.♥
You have had such a fun filled week.

Jenny said...

Loved this post, Katrina - great to hear about your busy, celebration filled weekend. I always find it interesting learning about other peoples' family heritage, what an amazing event the reunion must have been with so many relatives in attendance! Lovely photos of you with your cousins and congrats on 7 years of marriage!

P.S. Thankfully we weren't affected by the big storm at all, we live quite a long way from the East Coast. Our weather has been so calm and settled the past week that it seems surreal seeing so much devastation on TV in other parts of the country!

Jennifer x

Lynn said...

Belated Happy Anniversary! Wow, that was some weekend! I loved hearing about the Pendle Hill reunion. The older I get, the more I'm getting interested in family history.

Valentina said...

What a great weekend. I love the pics of your ancestors!

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