Facebook photo blooms to love

Dating expert Alan Reeves said it was unusual for online relationships to endure. Photo / Thinkstock

A kiwi facebook fan found the love of his life on the other side of the world - after buying her photo on the social networking site.

Love blossomed after Paul Clark bought Serbian Danijela Vukasinovic's picture while playing online game Owned. Players start with an imaginary pool of $100,000 and buy and sell photos of each other.

Call centre team manager Clark, 43, said he was not looking for love when he started playing in early 2008.

"I saw a picture of a pretty woman and purchased it. People bought it off me and I made some money. I saw some more pictures of her and bought them.

"This was going on for about 10 days when Dani sent me a message asking if I was going to buy her again and we started chatting."

The couple hit it off through email messages and progressed to video messaging.

"We found we had a lot in common and had a bit of a connection. We decided to pursue it and after about eight months she asked me to visit her," he said.

He flew to Serbia in September 2009 and spent a month with Vukasinovic.

Clark said returning to New Zealand was the toughest thing he had done in his life. But plans were put in place for Vukasinovic to visit for three months last year.

"All the time in between we were Skyping and emailing every day. I used to send her poems by text every day."

Vukasinovic's holiday to New Zealand "cemented" their relationship, Clark said.

"During that time Dani became pregnant with our daughter. I didn't find out until she had returned and she told me on Skype. Then we went through the whole immigration process to get her back into the country," he said.

Their daughter Lara was born on December 27.

Vukasinovic, 28, was born in the former Yugoslavia and became a refugee during the country's civil war.

She studied comparative literature in Croatia before moving to Belgrade to work as an editor with a publishing company and never expected to find love online.

"It was very unlikely for the relationship to succeed. There was the distance and the age gap. We made it happen but it didn't come easy," she said.

"We had all the drama about the visa and two weeks after my daughter was born my dad died. He had cancer. It was a hard time.

"But we are in love so it becomes very easy. In the end it always works out."

Dating expert Alan Reeves said it was unusual for online relationships to endure.

"About 25 per cent of people on dating sites are married already and just looking for something on the side.

"People lie all the time, especially about their age, and that's not a great basis for a relationship is it?"