Waimea Weekly
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Wednesday 13 February 2013
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Will you marry me... at 3500 ft? Sinead Ogilvie A local marriage celebrant says he got the shock of his life when he was asked to marry a visiting German couple at 3500 feet above ground and was even more surprised to be asked to seal the deal with a skydive jump from 16,500 feet. Richmond marriage celebrant Lester Oakes married Jan Schlesner and Susann Lasch on Saturday, making the couples dream wedding possible when he performed their ceremony in a small skydive plane followed by the jump. The couple, who first met while learning how to skydive, wanted to tie the knot in the same way and approached Abel Tasman Skydive in Motueka to organise the re-
gions first ever marriage of its kind. Lester followed the couple out of the plane door after the paper work was signed off, completing his first ever skydive and what he describes as his most unique wedding ever. “I’d even put it above the ceremony where I had to dress as Elvis for a Vegas style wedding,” he says. Lisa Chambers of Skydive Abel Tasman hopes this will be the first of many similar weddings. She says there are often requests to land in unique spots, like someone’s garden, but this was the first time there had ever been a request to be married in the air right before the skydive.
Richmond celebrant Lester Oakes takes Jan Schlesner and Susann Lasch through their wedding vows at 3500 ft. Insert: The newly-weds kiss while falling from 16,500 ft. Photos: Skydive Abel Tasman.
Slow down on Queen St Phillip Rollo
The speed limit on Queen St might be lowered to just 30km/h, according to a Tasman District Council engineering report that states Cambridge St and part of Wensley Rd could be next. The council reviews its speed limit bylaw every ten years and its recommendations, authored by transportation projects engineer Steve Elkington, will be ticked off by
the engineering services committee tomorrow before going out for public consultation later this month. The 20km/h speed limit drop on Queen St is the most notable change in the draft, although speed surveys report that the average speed outside council offices is just 39km/h anyway. Steve says the current speeds are excessive, and a new retail complex could increase the amount of foot traffic in the area. “The
The speed limit on Queen St could drop by 20km/h. Photo: Phillip Rollo. answer is primarily safety but there are no crashes reported in that section,” he says.
“I don’t think it’s going to make a scrap of difference though. The travel distance isn’t very far, lets be honest.” Steve says a new speed limit of 30km/h would be beneficial if the street parking changed from parallel to angle parking in the future. “We would like to alter it to create more on-street parking. We just want to set a precedence for what we see will be the key changes to Queen St in the future. It will be a slow speed environment.”
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