Giant proposal - but does she say yes?

Nathan Burgi proposed to Esther Goddard with the help of international sand artist Jamie Harkins. Photo / Supplied

Will you marry me? Four of the world's most romantic words were given an extra dimension on Saturday when Nathan Burgi proposed to Esther Goddard on the beach beside Mauao.

In letters so big that it attracted a big audience of passing admirers, Nathan guided Esther to the sand art, dropped onto one knee and waited for her answer.

His thoughtfulness in getting Tauranga artist Jamie Harkins to transform the proposal into beach art did not go unrewarded and Esther agreed without a second thought.

Jamie Harkins

"Nathan is someone that puts a lot of thought into things, so it was a pretty amazing proposal," she told the Bay of Plenty Times.

Nathan confessed he was not normally a romantic sort of guy, but had seen some of Jamie's beach art on Facebook and decided it would be a great way to propose. At first he was going to get a friend to do the writing in the sand, but plucked up the courage to ask the artist himself.

Jamie agreed and so the scene was set for Saturday morning when Nathan took Esther for a walk around Mauao's base track. Before the words in the sand came into sight, Nathan asked Esther to close her eyes.

Taking her hand he guided her down onto the beach and asked her to look when she was in front of the giant proposal.

Esther was overwhelmed, particularly because she knew her arborist boyfriend was not a romantic type. "That was why I was so blown away, it was so romantic."

The 21-year-olds had been dating for three years but despite this Nathan said he was really nervous when it came to proposing marriage.

"I did not really do much, hats off to Jamie."

Esther, a Waikato University student studying at the Windermere campus, said it was still overwhelming even though they had known for a while that they wanted to marry.

"It was a very special day. For him to put so much effort into it was so cool," she said.

Mr Harkins said that as he finished writing the proposal, wind of what was happened got around those walking the base track and a crowd of romantics waited for the couple's moment, when Esther said yes.

Mr Harkins said he was glad to be a part of the special moment.

"I just wanted to help, the way he [Mr Burgi] was talking - he just seemed like a real honest bloke. He really loves this girl. He was pretty confident she would say 'yes', but I had to make sure of that. "

No date has been set for the big day.