Talking about the qualities that attracted her to him, Wotton said she loved how he was a smiley sort of guy, laid-back and did not rattle easily.
Adventure sports was the second love of Tingey, and it took his life when a paragliding flight over Mauao went badly wrong.
His parents had just begun their holiday in the US state of Utah when the news came through that their son had died.
By the time they arrived back in Tauranga yesterday morning, their home was being prepared for an influx of family and friends all wanting to gently grieve and share reminiscences.
The 28-year-old surveyor was a natural sportsman who enjoyed tennis and hockey, including playing age-group rep hockey for Tauranga. Throughout it all, he relished adventure sports like roaring around on his 450cc motocross bike, waterskiing, snow skiing and hunting.
''He was all go and all stop, with nothing in-between. He never wasted a moment of his life,'' Tingey's mother Theresa told the Bay of Plenty Times.
Family and friends all agreed he always had a huge smile on his face.
''He was lovely, very gentle and very smiley - a nice bloke,'' Dominique Le-Sellin of the Bay of Plenty Hang Gliding and Paragliding Club said.
Tingey learned paragliding in Auckland and had been a member of the Bay club for about three years.
But it was dirt bike riding that captured his imagination as a boy on his uncle's farm on the Kaipara Flat. Starting with a little 50cc Honda, he progressing to his last machine, a hugely powerful bike that formerly belonged to a New Zealand motocross champion. He regularly raced at the TECT All-Terrain Park.
Behind this love of adrenalin sports was a man who everyone loved for his laid-back and no hassles approach to life.
Tingey owned a little 16ft tinny with his brother, and they regularly dismayed their father by fishing excursions deep into the Bay.
''As soon as there was a whiff of wind, they shot straight into shore,'' his father GP Graeme said.
Tingey spent his primary and intermediate years at Bethlehem College, before switching to Tauranga Boys' College in Year 10. His hockey talents were immediately recognised, and he was soon playing for the 1st 11.
He did his Bachelor of Surveying at Otago University, displaying a natural aptitude for studies that saw him succeed without seeming to try too hard.
''He was a very bright kid,'' his father said.
Tingey was head-hunted from Surveying School by Australian companies and spent two years working in Northern Queensland before returning to New Zealand.
Theresa said her son had an infectious personality and was a great problem solver. ''There was never a problem and always a solution.''
Together they formed part of a team that in 2016 won the TVNZ reality show Our First Home. Mum and son teamed up with Bex and her father Henry to win $100,000 by making the biggest profit of $99,000 doing up a Henderson house. It was sold at auction for $780,000 after the 10-week do-up.
The young couple decided it did not make sense to buy a house in Auckland, so they bought their first home in Tauranga instead. He found a job in Tauranga soon after they won the prize in April and he was joined later in the year by Wotton who completed her teaching year at Mt Eden. The $100,000 was used as a deposit to buy a house in Brookfield.
Tingey's mother said the show offered a unique experience that a lot of people did not get. They all lived and worked together for 10 intensive weeks.
His parents were not the only ones who flew back to New Zealand. Two of Tingey's three brothers also returned from Dubai and the Bahamas.
Looking back on her son's life, Theresa said he was very lucky to have had the best of both worlds thanks to family - the city and country life.
Tingey is also survived by his brothers Ben (29), Sam (26) and Matt (23).
