John Tamihere was busy yesterday. Photo / Anthony Phelps
John Tamihere was busy yesterday. Photo / Anthony Phelps
KEY POINTS:
In politics timing is everything. Tell that to bad boy ex-politician John Tamihere, who chose one of the most important weekends of the local body election campaign to go AWOL.
Tamihere is one of the contenders for the Waitakere City mayoralty and ideally should have been busy outon the hustings this weekend trying to firm up support to unseat rival and favourite Bob Harvey.
But instead, Tamihere, the man once described as "The Great Brown Hope of the Labour Party", was hundreds of kilometres away, in Feilding getting married to longtime partner, Awerangi Durie.
Sure the timing wasn't great, he agreed, but after 10 years together she'd waited long enough.
"It just seemed the right thing to do. It's a commitment, a public acknowledgment to Awerangi and the kids."
Latest polls have Harvey ahead in the mayoral race with around 48.9 per cent, and Tamihere second with just over 32 per cent support.
However, with 25 per cent of voters still undecided in this hotly contested seat, a close finish could be in store when votes are counted in a fortnight.
Yesterday's wedding at Aorangi Marae was a family affair with the Tamihere and Durie whanau all together for the first time in 18 years.
About 160 people attended the ceremony which was officiated by Durie's 81-year-old aunt, who is an Anglican minister.
Tamihere's youngest brother, Gordon, was best man and the couple's three daughters were part of the bridal party.
So what did Tamihere make of his new father-in-law, respected Maori academic Mason Durie?
Ten years ago he was pretty sure that Durie wasn't that happy about who "his little girl had hooked up with" but the relationship had progressed since then.
And married life? He didn't expect things would change much, even if he did win the mayoralty. "Together we've been through some pretty rough times and we've managed our way through things," he said.
"We are very much chalk and cheese but that has probably helped things."
