“Marriage equality is only three hours away.”
Australians are top of the list when it comes to same-sex couples marrying in New Zealand.
Lake Wakatipu, Queenstown.
David Hallett / Getty Images
The New Zealand Herald reported 812 overseas same-sex couples had married in the country since marriage equality was legislated in August 2013.
Of those, 264 lesbian couples and 236 gay male couples – 500 in total – were from nearby Australia.
Melbourne couple Sarah Dessmann and Natasha Horvat travelled to New Zealand to marry earlier this month. They told BuzzFeed News they were "sick of waiting" for Australia to legislate.
Dessmann and Horvat on their wedding day.
Holly Wallace / Holly Wallace Photography
"For our eight year anniversary we decided we'd go to New Zealand as a holiday, things escalated, and we decided we'd get married," said Horvat.
"Why not? We'd always said marriage equality is only three hours away."
The last-minute nature of their decision to wed in Queenstown meant family and friends missed out on the ceremony. However, Horvat said family and friends were "fine about it", and the day was just about the happy couple instead.
"Because we have been denied [marriage] here we didn't get lost in the hype of the party and the celebration and the way people get lost in pleasing everyone... we just made it about us," she said.