Ross Karl and Janika ter Ellen met at work and fell in love during the 2011 Rugby World Cup
Ross Karl and Janika ter Ellen met at work and fell in love during the 2011 Rugby World Cup
Sports reporter Ross Karl knew he had to be sneaky if he wanted to keep his proposal plans a surprise from his partner, fellow journalist Janika ter Ellen.
"Janika's very good at being a journalist," Karl said in this week's edition of New Idea.
"If I put a tiny ideaout there she wants to know everything about it."
Ter Ellen, who presents Prime News and used to be Paul Henry's sidekick on The Paul Henry Show, had mentioned her love of bushwalking near her grandmother's Kawerau home, so Karl bided his time for more than a year, waiting for the pair to make their way out there, naturally.
Karl and ter Ellen set out on an evening bushwalk to a spot overlooking a waterfall, and as she started to tell him about the history of the place, he got down on one knee.
Ross Karl and Janika ter Ellen plan to marry next April in the Coromandel.
"I thought he'd fallen over," ter Ellen said.
"He was crying and it didn't seem like a happy cry. All the worst case scenarios were going through my head. Then he said 'no, no, no, it's just ... you are the light of my life and I had a speech but I've forgotten it. Will you marry me'," she recalled.
Karl conceded he was "a little shaky and a little teary" when it came to popping the question.
