Sydney-born former netball star<\/a> \u2013 who has played for the Southern Steel, the Waikato Bay of Plenty Magic and the Northern Stars \u2013 has enjoyed a dream pregnancy, which has felt very short.<\/p>\nCourtney explains: \u201cWe waited a few weeks to tell my family, because they\u2019re all in Australia and I wanted to do it in person. So between that and not finding out until later, as well as all the other tests we had to do to make sure the pregnancy was all good due to my age, it has seemed so fast for everyone!<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the best moments of the pregnancy so far was telling Api\u2019s family \u2013 especially his mum Irene. She\u2019s been quite sick with cancer, so it was a beautiful moment for Api to share the news with her. It\u2019s such a positive, happy thing for her and his family when they\u2019ve been going through quite a tough time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Courtney and Apirana \u2013 Coco and Api to their pals \u2013 have been together since late 2024, connecting through mutual friends. They\u2019d actually already met briefly years before, but neither was in a position for anything romantic to blossom. However, the stars eventually aligned and Courtney realised quite quickly that Api, 33, was her person. <\/p>\n
![\"The]()
The couple share a deep love of sport. Photo \/ Robert Trathen<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d been single for a while and it\u2019s because I was really happy alone,\u201d admits Courtney, who\u2019s of Tainui descent. \u201cI wasn\u2019t going to settle or sacrifice anything just for the sake of being in a relationship. But then Api came along and once I met him again, I knew instantly that he was someone I wanted to spend a lot of time with. We connected on the same values, especially around wh\u0101nau and te ao M\u0101ori. He\u2019s a good, good man.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was going through some big life changes at that point, especially with work, and he was so supportive. He told me to trust myself and back myself. It was so lovely to have that support in my corner.\u201d<\/p>\n
Of course, Courtney and Api share a deep love of sport, with her career in netball and his in rugby league, paving the way for their p\u0113pi \u2013 a little boy \u2013 to inherit some epic athletic ability!<\/p>\n
![\"Courtney]()
Courtney Tairi and Apirana Pewhairangi are focused on welcoming their new bub. Photo \/ Robert Trathen<\/p>\n
They also jointly host their sport podcast Sharpen Up, which serves up a M\u0101ori take on sports, alongside All Blacks legend Piri Weepu. They\u2019re keen to eventually produce a second season later this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ll have to see how we\u2019re going with baby, but we\u2019ve loved doing the pod so much,\u201d Courtney enthuses. \u201cI\u2019m just happy embracing this new journey, but at the same time, I\u2019ve worked so hard and hustled for my own career. Two things can be true at once, you know, so I\u2019ll balance the mahi when we get to that point. There are so many amazing women who juggle it all, so I have lots of great inspiration!\u201d<\/p>\n
In the meantime, she and Api, who has Ng\u0101ti Porou heritage, are focused on welcoming their new bub, with the gorgeous couple visiting both their marae \u2013 Maungatautari in Waikato for her and P\u0101kirikiri Marae in East Cape for him \u2013 to make sure the little lad is connected with all sides of his wh\u0101nau and his whakapapa, and to get some name inspiration. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis baby is going to be so loved,\u201d smiles Courtney. \u201cHe already is so loved. This really is everything I have ever wanted.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Becoming a m\u0101m\u0101 has been one of Courtney\u2019s biggest dreams \u2013 but it\u2019s one she kept under wraps…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273223,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1443,6726,1970,76910,2068,40570,80246,6097,33736,2740,154243,2203,6093,9062,2721,11692,111,139,69,5994,12508,1517,6180,7457,84620,213,6100,88,154242,684,6436,540],"class_list":["post-273222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-about","tag-become","tag-believe","tag-bump","tag-cant","tag-considering","tag-courtney","tag-down","tag-fern","tag-former","tag-fullterm","tag-journey","tag-little","tag-moments","tag-mum","tag-nearly","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-pregnancy","tag-quite","tag-reveals","tag-shes","tag-silver","tag-smiling","tag-sports","tag-still","tag-surprise","tag-tairi","tag-there","tag-well","tag-where"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}