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Widower groom regrets fatal wedding day decision
Wellington Saturday, 08 November 2008
An Auckland man says he will forever regret his decision to drive home a wedding guest who drunk too much rather than travel home with his new bride.
Quiong Mao, 28, and Yan Liu, 26, had been married only a few hours when Ms Liu died in a car smash as she was driven home from her wedding reception on Thursday night. .
Her husband was driving home another guest when the BMW car Ms Liu was a passenger in was torn apart as it hit a light standard in the south Auckland suburb of Mt Wellington.
Instead he offered to drive home the guest who had had too much to drink before joining his bride at their home in Hillcrest on Auckland's North Shore.
Mr Mao said yesterday he should have been in the car with his new wife when they left their wedding reception.
"I should have been in the same car with my wife, but the car already had four people so I said I would take another friend home first.
It was a decision he would regret for the rest of his life, a tearful Mao told the New Zealand Herald."
When Mr Mao arrived home from the wedding reception at a Chinese restaurant in East Tamaki he was surprise Ms Liu was not there, and he tried to phone her. I wish things could be different.
One side of the BMW car was torn off in the crash.
He finally got through to a guest and was told the shattering news that his wife was dead.
Friends told the Herald Mr Mao, 28, could not be consoled over his wife's death and had not stopped crying. Also destroyed was the camera used to take the wedding pictures.
Ms Liu, who worked at an early childcare centre, had been living in New Zealand for three years.
Ms Liu had wanted a typical New Zealand wedding but the couple also planned a "grand wedding celebration" for family in China next year.
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Rescue underway to save trapped caver
Thursday, 06 November 2008
A rescue operation is underway to save a seriously injured woman who is trapped deep in an underground cave in the Waitomo area.
Senior Sergeant Robert Van Kalken said the woman had fallen in the Lucky Strike Cave, off Waipuna Rd west of Waitomo.
Police had been notified around 2.
"The woman was 40-60 minutes into the cave when she fell," Mr Van Kalken said.30pm of her fall and numerous agencies were involved inher rescue, which is expected to take up to six hours. A companion managed to pull her from the stream and cover her in a survival blanket before coming out to raise the alarm. "She suffered a broken hip and lost three teeth and fell into a stream. .
The rescue is expected to take some time because the cave is narrow and the woman will have to bemanoeuvred out on a stretcher.
Caving experts, police, search and rescue and St John Ambulance staff have all been brought into the scene to assist with the rescue of the woman.
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A rescue helicopter is currently on standby to airlift the injured woman to hospital once she has been brought to the surface
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NZer sought over assault that left tourist in coma
Friday, 17 October 2008
Australian police are offering a A$1000 (NZ$1130) reward for information leading to the arrest of a New Zealander they want to interview over a vicious attack on an Irishman in Sydney.
David Keohane, 29, has been in a coma since he was found lying on a road in the beachside suburb of Coogee about 3am on August 9 suffering head injuries.
Mr Keohane was the previous month taken home to Ireland by his family, but his condition has not improved.
Another man, 39, was arrested yesterday in connection with the attack on Mr Keohane and charged with hindering police and concealing a serious indictable offence.
Police now want to interview 19-year-old New Zealand man, Kane Desmond Tupuolamaoui, in connection with the assault, the ABC reported on its website.
Another New Zealander, Thomas Isaako, 19, appeared in court earlier this month charged with attempting to murder Mr Keohane and aggravated robbery with wounding.
He was granted bail and was due to appear at Waverley Local Court on November 19. .
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