Mixing vows and rowing

Lake Ruataniwha in Twizel, in central South Island is the main 2000m rowing venue for South Island rowing. Every second year the national championships are held there and rowing has now become a major part of the town of Twizel. Richard and Sarah chose the lake as the backdrop for their wedding.

“We really wanted to get married at Twizel,” says Sarah, “as we have spent so much time there.” This year was Richard’s 21st season as a rower and in that time he has rowed on the New Zealand national team as a lightweight. Sarah took up rowing eight years ago. Her first coach was Richard’s father.

Sarah admits the whole rowing themed wedding started out as a crazy idea, but then it began to form and take shape into reality.

An eight was borrowed from the local club at Lake Ruataniwha and Sarah, in full wedding dress, rowed up to the 1000m mark. There Richard met her along with the full wedding party to witness the ceremony. Richard then waded into the water and took over in stroke seat with Sarah now sitting in seven. They rowed away with the help of members of the local rowing club.

“We didn’t actually row,” admits Sarah who said the logistics of trying to stop her wedding dress getting caught in the tracks made it difficult. She also revealed that getting in and out of the boat was not easy. “There wasn’t much of a way to get out modestly.”

Speeches at the post-ceremony dinner were based around a 2000m race with numerous anecdotes of a rowing race flavour.

And for the yet-to-come honeymoon the newly-weds hope to get to the Olympics in London. If that is not possible then it will be closer to home at the 2013 Samsung Rowing World Cup in Sydney, Australia.