New Zealand's ‘first man’ opens up on wedding plans with Prime Minister Ardern
Clarke Gayford told Sunrise he and Jacinda have put preparations “on the backburner” after the whole country was plunged into a COVID-19 lockdown last week.
The wedding, scheduled for this summer in Gisborne on the North Island, has been anticipated for some time since the pair were engaged at Easter two years ago.
But Gayford continued: “Unfortunately this latest lockdown has kind of just put everything on the backburner for the interim, so there will be a whole flurry of activity closer to the time,” he said.
The 43-year-old, who shares a three-year-old daughter with Ardern, said the couple had not planned a honeymoon, admitting: “I don’t think we’ve even had that conversation.”
Promoting his new fishing book as well
Gayford, who’s been a successful television and radio host for the past 20 years, was talking on Sunrise to promote his new fishing book which he has co-authored with Mike Bhana.
Called Fish Of The Day – the book is based on Gayford’s fishing show of the same name and includes travel tips, recipes and more.
Gayford told the Sunrise hosts, Natalie Barr and David Koch, he has been teaching Ardern how to fish and she’s “actually pretty good.”
“I can say that she has got enthusiastically into some of the fishing trips that we’ve been able to get stuck into,” he said.
“I’ve been teaching her how to soft bait and a style of fishing called speed-jigging and she’s very determined when she sets her mind to it.”
The Kiwi said his first fishing trip with Ardern was “absolutely magic.”
“It went dead flat, we had a whale show up, her first cast she got a 14 pound (6.3kg) snapper, her very next cast she caught this huge john dory - and she thought that was what fishing was always like.
”So she was hooked from that point onwards,” he laughed.
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