Same Sex Couples celebrated with ceremonies across the two island nation of New Zealand as the nation became the 14th country in the world and the first in the Asia-Pacific Rim to legalize Marriage Equality on Monday. New Zealand's MPs approved the bill by a large majority in April this year, with 77 votes in favour and 44 against. Among the first to wed were Auckland couple Tash Vitali and Melissa Ray, who won an all expenses paid ceremony in a radio competition. They arrived at their ceremony early this morning in a horse drawn carriage trailing a rainbow banner. Lynley Bendall and Ally Wanikau, made their vows in the air on a special flight between Queenstown and Auckland - in a ceremony attended by US actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson from the sitcom Modern Family. All told there were 31 nuptial celebrations scheduled for today. The department of internal affairs said the number of marriage licence applications downloaded from its website had tripled in the week leading up to the law change. Inquiries about staging same-sex weddings in New Zealand had been received from Russia, the United States, Hong Kong, Britain, Singapore, Malaysia, Guyana and Belgium. Also among the first to be married were Australian couple Paul McCarthy and Trent Kandler, who beat 300 other pairs to win a Tourism New Zealand competition. Their wedding will not be legally recognized at home but McCarthy said he hoped that day would come and the ceremony at Wellington's Te Papa museum showed "we don't have two horns, we're not freaks [and] that there's nothing to fear from marriage equality". A hearty congratulations to all the happy couples who have already married or are planning to marry in the near future.
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