Tsunami couple remembered

Pauline Welch at the ceremony to plant a magnolia in memory of her son and his wife. Picture / Richard Robinson

"Andrew and Belinda went home earlier than we thought they would."

The married couple who lost their lives in the Boxing Day tsunami were remembered with love at a ceremony beside a magnolia tree in a Huntly garden yesterday.

About 20 friends and family gathered to re-tell favourite stories, in a relaxed memorial which had a deeply spiritual theme - the pair were committed Christians and family and friends believe they are now with the God they loved so much.

"Quite early in the piece we accepted they were in it," elder brother Jeremy Welch told the gathering at his semi-rural home overlooking Lake Hakanoa.

The couple had gone "home".

Andrew, 42, and Belinda, 26, Welch had spent three months backpacking around Europe and were enjoying the beaches of Khao Lak - a beach that was to be the worst-hit in Thailand.

The couple's bodies had been found soon after the Boxing Day disaster, but their identification came months later.

Some of Belinda and Andrew's ashes have been previously buried alongside Belinda's dead parents in Christchurch, and others have been scattered in a separate memorial service at Omaha Beach in Rodney.

The last of the ashes were yesterday mixed in with soil during the planting of a young magnolia tree at brother Jeremy's Huntly home.

They were free from pain and suffering that tended to affect many other lives, he said.

"Whatever happened over the past year, put the grieving aside. Don't move on, keep it with you. Build it in, and carry on with what's happened. Keep on going."

Jeremy told the group that while Andrew may have enjoyed holidays on the Gold Coast, he liked to return to Huntly where he could "de-tox" from the materialistic values of "lovely cars, homes, and palm trees".

Christians knew material goods were worth nothing, Jeremy said.

Allison Mooney of Auckland, a former workmate of Andrew, said she was yet to delete any of the email correspondence she had received from him before his death.

"I can't do it. You reflect on little moments. I had similar values to Andrew, he was a great friend."

The pair worked for a corporate training organisation, and had vetted hundreds of applicants together while selecting people for the first Treasure Island reality TV show.

She described Andrew as fun-loving and adventurous.

"He so honoured Belinda. He just so loved Belinda.

"I was quite envious of it. He had to tell the world. He thought he was a strong man but Belinda had it on him."

Life was like a baseball game, Jeremy Welch said. While going around the bases was full of drama and excitement, the main aim was to get home.

Hitting a home run may have been an anti-climax, but the aim was still fulfilled.