Many happy returns

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Geoff Chapple and Miriam Beatson didn’t tell anyone except the minister that they were getting married on February 14, 1988. Everyone else was simply invited to Cheltenham Beach in Devonport: “Please join Geoff and Miriam in a St Valentine’s Day celebration—bring your own champagne picnic.”

Robin and Dinah Morrison had an invitation like anyone else—as good friends. Geoff didn’t ask Robin to photograph the event, but maybe he should have known. Robin brought his Nikon and got the shot of the day, featuring the newlyweds’ five-year-old son, Amos (now a photographer himself), clearing away streamers in front. And maybe the secrecy thing had slipped a bit. Someone threw rice.

This issue, Geoff Chapple writes about the re-publication of Robin Morrison’s seminal 1981 book The South Island of New Zealand from the Road.