Wedding Info

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Latest Stuff
Intro
Date / Location
Climate
What to wear
How to get there
What else to do?

Latest Stuff

Kath has made up a gift registry, it can be found here under Katharine Sheppard and Alastair Sheppard.

Intro

Kath and I are intending to renew our vows on June 19th of this year. When we initially got married, it was a quiet affair involving a few close friends. Now, we wan't to have a proper shin dig and invite everybody that couldn't make it then.

The location will be at Kath's home, in Fairbanks, Alaska, USA. Being this far away does cause some trouble, but is also a great excuse to go on a long holiday in the middle of a Kiwi winter.

Date / Location

All going according to the master plan, it will take place on the Sunday 19th June 2005, at Kath's house at 4pm in the afternoon. A reception will follow at the Dog Mushers Hall on Farmers Loop Road.

Kath's place is 920 Amanita Road, Fairbanks, USA. Fairbanks is located about 7 hours drive north of Anchorage, or 45 minutes by air and is located slap bang in the middle of Alaska. For those driving up from Canada, it's about 10-12 hours drive west from Whitehorse.

Directions to the Hewitt house from Fairbanks City:
Head east from Fairbanks, get on the Steese Expressway heading out of town toward Fox. Stay on that until you reach the exit for Chena Hot Springs Road, and turn right onto CHSR. Travel about 5.8 miles, until you reach Amanita Road (on the left – we’ll tie balloons to the stop sign at the bottom of the road or something). If you reach Nordale Road, you’ve gone too far. Turn left onto Amanita Road, and stay on it for about ½ mile until you get to a driveway on the right with a parking area just above it (if you get to Warp Drive, you’ve gone a wee bit too far), 920. There is a sign saying Hewitt/Coote 920 on it, we will have it marked a bit better on the day.

Directions to Dog Mushers Hall from Kath's place;
Insert directions here Kath!

Climate

As our wedding is right around Summer Solstice, there should be pretty close to 24 hours of sunlight. There will be an hour or two of dusk at midnight or so, but nothing that you should need to turn your lights on for.

The weather is usually warm, about 10 deg C (50 deg F) at night, to mid 20's (60's F) during the day, and it sometimes gets up to mid 30's (90's F). Kind of like a warm spring day here in NZ. Hopefully it will be sunny most of the time, and a whole lot better than NZ in June!

As a side note, Fairbanks is only about 500 feet above sea level, so it's not a high altitude place.

What to wear

Yes, you can wear open toed shoes. For general wear, shorts and t-shirts with a sweater should be fine. For the wedding, Kath has got the full dress thing going and Al will be in a suit, so wear what you think is appropriate. Alaskans have their own "style", where overalls are considered "formal wear" on occasions, so whatever you want to wear, go for it.

Ways of getting there

Umm, swim? Most likely, it will be an equal distance / time going via LA (or west coast USA / Canada) or going via Tokyo (Asia somewhere). You will end up in Anchorage, and need a flight to Fairbanks or a train or bus or rental or walk or ....

Most people seem to be travelling via Los Angeles, to Vancouver or Anchorage then making their way up to Fairbanks. We are flying to St Loius for another wedding and then driving up to Fairbanks via Vancouver and Whitehorse (5000 miles, 10 days we hope).

The Alaskan Railroad travels between Fairbanks and Anchorage and has some wonderful scenery that you won't get from the road. Alaska Airlines flies regularily between Fairbanks and Anchorage, Seattle, Vancouver, Portland and Los Angeles. The Alaskan Marine Highway System (here or here or here) runs a ferry service between Bellingham (Washington, US) and Haines (Southeast Alaska) with many stops in between. Also, Greyhound runs a bus service up to Whitehorse, then a another bus company goes from Whitehorse to Fairbanks. A bus service also comes up from Anchorage. Get names of them.

What to do up there / links

One attraction is the Midnight Sun Run, done the night before our wedding (and the reason we changed the date). A 10km run, it starts at 10pm and runs around Fairbanks on the flat stuff. (No hills Mum!)

Coming soon.
Explore Fairbanks - What to do in Fairbanks.
Northern Alaska Tour Company - Kath's old employer and purveyor of fine rides and flights up north to the sea.
Travel Alaska - Alaska Vacation Guide.