Rotorua's Mark Bishop gave his girlfriend Katherine Pedley 30,000 good reasons to marry him - when he won TVNZ's Breakfast competition to give away a $30,000 diamond engagement ring.
Mr Bishop had to come up with the most amazing marriage proposal to win the competition.
His idea was to fly by helicopter to Glenholme School with his partner of eight years, who is a teacher there, and have the children lay down on the field and spell out "Marry me Miss Pedley".
Mr Bishop was told by TVNZ last week, he had won the competition but had to keep it a secret until yesterday.
He told The Daily Post it wasn't hard to come up with the idea to propose. He made up a story that they had won a helicopter trip - and that was enough to get her on board.
"By understanding Katherine and knowing she would want her school involved and just by doing something spectacular.
"I absolutely adore her and love her to bits. I always wanted to make sure I did it in a really special way and thanks to the opportunity from Breakfast and Angela Daniel the jeweller. They really really made it for us."
Mr Bishop said Miss Pedley had no idea until she read the children's message and he got the answer he was after when she responded with a resounding "yes". He had the ring on her finger by the time they landed.
Miss Pedley said she was speechless when she read the message.
"I was just blown away. We were flying around and I could see all the kids and I thought they were just sitting on the field and then I saw the words, 'Marry me Miss Pedley' and I just didn't know what to say."
The diamond engagement ring is an 18 carat white gold band, the centre stone is a 2.1 carat diamond with 48 smaller diamonds around it.
Miss Pedley's parents Roger and Rosemary Pedley said they were proud of their future son-in-law and "absolutely happy" for their daughter. The happy couple say they have not yet had time to set a date for the wedding.
The pair will be on Breakfast on Monday morning at 8.40am.
Woman's $30,000 ring flown in by helicopter
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