How We Met
Justin and I met a few times before we ever officially met; We were destined to be in each other’s lives from the very beginning.
In 2004 my family moved to a small village roughly 30 minutes from the small city I was born in. Little did I know that my future husband lived 5 minutes down the road from me, was friends with my neighbors and went to the school around the corner. I went for a tour/trial of the school to see if its where I wanted to go and while down on the soccer field I was knocked over by a kid sliding along the ground. We never spoke. I had never heard of him and we had never met but we’d seen each other a couple of times within the years my family lived there.
In high school, my friendship group sat by the drinking fountains and toilets and in early 2012, as I was eating my sandwich, a year 7 boy walked passed us to get a drink. He looked over at us and then away and his eyes were the most magnificent color of ocean blue I had ever seen! So, being the outgoing, never shy person I am, I bounced up to him and told him I loved his eyes and this was the day our lives changed forever. Although we didn’t officially know who the other person was a few weeks, Justin hung around and got a huge crush on me.
We spent the years between 2012 and 2014 in on-again, off-again friendship. For a few months the only time we’d speak was a hug out the front of the school in the morning and other months we didn’t even like each other. But, as fate would have it, Justin and I always came back to each other. We always accepted each other back no matter how rude, stupid or teenagery we had been before.
A few months into 2014 I had started dating a guy, RP, who wasn’t the nicest. We dated each other as a rebound from bad relationships and looking back now, I don’t think either of us was particularly really interested in the relationship itself.
When I went away with family, RP wouldn’t talk to me as punishment but, Justin wanted to Skype every day and check-in to see how it was. And I remember the moment it all switched and I realized RP wasn’t the person I really wanted to be with: RP wasn’t talking to me again, a different reason this time, so Justin asked me if I wanted to go skating (a place we regularly ventured) to cheer me up and it was there that I saw Justin in a way I had never before. Obviously RP and I didn’t last much longer than that and I started hanging out with Justin way more.
On January 12th, 2015 Justin asked me to be his girlfriend (as demanded by me) and I said yes.
How They Asked
Fast forward 4 and a half years into our relationship and I had decided it’s time we got on a plane and went on an adventure somewhere!
So, we planned a trip to New Zealand to celebrate our 5 year anniversary in style.
I planned most of the activities, deciding how many days we’d be there, where we’ll stay and what we’ll do in each place while we’re travelling around. Justin had been to New Zealand before and had already done a lot of the things we did but he says he loved seeing me experience these things for the first time with him.
We went luging, to farm shows, zorbing, horse riding, clay shooting, swam in thermal pools, on a cruise around volcanoes, climbed a mountain and decided that for our anniversary we would do something a bit more magical and go through the Waitomo glowworm caves.
I had no idea what was coming that day, Justin and I had talked about getting married and getting engaged but because I planned the trip I figured he wouldn’t have a chance to do anything on the trip. I was very wrong.
We woke up the morning of our anniversary, got ready and went to the wrong cave first. We were waiting when we realized we were supposed to go to ruakuri, not Aruni. I was panicking we’d miss our tour but Justin was relieved because it turns out you’re not supposed to talk in Aruni so his opportunity there was lost.
We drove to the right cave and found ourselves on a small tour of 6 instead of the big groups of 40 they had been sending in every 15 minutes! Before going in the guide was telling us just how lucky we were because the big tour groups were running up until the day before and this was the first small group they’d seen in 6 months.
As we walked through I was in awe of the incredible formations of the cave and didn’t realize Justins nerves.
Our tour guide walked us into the first glowworm section and I was immediately taken by surprise, it looked like the night sky had decided to engulf us and it was beautiful. When the tour guide moved on Justin whispered for me to stay behind because he “had a surprise for me”. I, still blissfully unaware, stayed behind looking at the glowworms when I turned around to see him down on one knee when he said: “I wanted to know if you’ll marry me?”
I cried, I got confused, I said “yes”, I said “are you sure?”, I said, “No take backs!” And I grabbed the ring and Justin’s arm and ran towards the slowly disappearing tour because I was scared we’d be left behind.
I couldn’t see the ring properly until we left the cave but I spent the rest of the tour in a daze, not quite sure if that really just happened! Our tour guide snapped a shot of us in the most lit section of the cave and as we entered daylight and I first saw my ring, my breath was taken away!
(My ring, first thing out of the cave)
We waited three days to tell anyone because we wanted to tell our parents in person and it was definitely fun having this little secret all to ourselves for a while.
2022 here we come.
– Future Mrs. White.