\u201cObviously, for me on a personal level, I was feeling very conflicted with the timing of the wedding and then this happening in my own community,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Rutherford, 29, spent Thursday on the ground at the Mount Maunganui slip site. He spent the day before his wedding there too, alongside Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, as well as making a visit to the site of the P\u0101p\u0101moa landslide.<\/p>\n
\u201cI did find it really conflicting, but I knew that my priority needed to be my community, and then on the Saturday, my priority being Hannah and our marriage.<\/p>\n
\u201cI definitely felt really torn but staying committed to both the recovery efforts, whilst also quietly marrying … it was a big priority for me.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s difficult to balance joy and grief at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rutherford, 30, had been with 28-year-old Ralph for four years and the pair had planned their union since 2024, although Rutherford confessed it had been a long-held dream of hers.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe just needed to find the bloke that was going to stand at the end of the altar!\u201d<\/p>\n
Rutherford acknowledged their eagerness to be married was difficult to balance for the couple, given the circumstances.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a challenging period for us but [she] knew that I needed to do what I needed to do for my community.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that\u2019s one of the reasons why we make such a formidable and strong team, her support for me, her love. She was very understanding.\u201d<\/p>\n
The tragedy was front of mind for those at the wedding.<\/p>\n
The pair were married in an intimate affair at the popular wedding venue, Black Walnut, in Whakam\u0101rama, a 30-minute drive from Tauranga.<\/p>\n
Even with the nature of the occasion, Rutherford noted the slips were front of mind for many guests.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone\u2019s got a story or a connection to Mauao and to Mount Maunganui, whether it\u2019s having climbed the Mount, stayed at the campsite, eaten at one of the cafes or swum at the beach.\u201d<\/p>\n
That includes the newly married couple, who had their first date walking up Mauao and were later engaged on \u014cmanu Beach, just down from the mountain.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur connection with the mountain is really special to us as well and you are right, conflicting emotions, but as I said, we\u2019re a strong team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adam Pearse is the Deputy Political Editor and part of the NZ Herald\u2019s Press Gallery team based at Parliament in Wellington. He has worked for NZME since 2018, reporting for the Northern Advocate in Whang\u0101rei and the Herald in Auckland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cObviously, for me on a personal level, I was feeling very conflicted with the timing of the wedding…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":284426,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1443,534,1561,19555,5504,293,21666,19474,68199,10005,17707,13233,6368,3556,111,43,139,1536,69,1118,660,1562,23282,25995,108679,2863,89818,17213,14040,158583,158584,5134,12628,15315,2201],"class_list":["post-284425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-about","tag-amid","tag-bay","tag-evening","tag-following","tag-his","tag-holding","tag-items","tag-january","tag-list","tag-maunganui","tag-mount","tag-mp","tag-national","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-next","tag-nz","tag-of","tag-planning","tag-plenty","tag-ppmoa","tag-remaining","tag-rutherford","tag-sleep","tag-slips","tag-speaks","tag-spend","tag-ticking","tag-todo","tag-tom","tag-tragedy","tag-wedding","tag-went"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284425","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=284425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284425\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}