Wedding photos that were lost in the Christchurch earthquake of 2011 have been found.

The photos were recovered 18 months after the couple's camera was washed away in silt. Miraculously, they found the camera on their driveway. The camera was completely ruined.

The groom, Martin Burley, discovered the camera after a spate of bad weather and believes that the camera was brought up to the surface of the gravel because of this. He really didn't think that he and his wife, Fen, would ever see the camera, or their precious images for that matter, again.

The quake happened the day that the couple returned home from their honeymoon. In the rush to save what they could from their already damaged home, the camera must have slipped out of a bag. They didn't realise the camera was missing until a few days afterwards, and gave up all hope of ever seeing it or the once in a lifetime images again.

Once the memory card was extracted and inserted into a computer, it took a few attempts to get it working properly, but eventually all the images of their special day were rescued.