"She's married and living her own life but she's still part of ours."
Nicklin runs her own business and will continue her work while supporting her husband in his new role.
"We're used to adapting to changes and we've always managed to maintain good balance," she said.
The couple said children Jonty, 18, Theo, 16, and Phoebe, 13, were all busy with school and sports activities which did require their parents to be available for driver duties but it was manageable.
"I will have to wind up some contracts for my business," Tripe said.
He wanted to thank the previous council and acknowledge the leadership of former mayor Hamish McDouall.
"The council is in a good position to increase urban and rural growth and development in the district and I'm very excited and energised to lead that."
"I want to congratulate the councillors who have been re-elected and the five new members of the team. I also want to acknowledge James Barron, who has not been re-elected, for the excellent work he has done on council during the last term."
Tripe said he also wanted to acknowledge former councillors Graeme Young, Hadleigh Reid, Alan Taylor and Brent Crossan for their service.
The new mayor said he had devised a plan of action for his first 150 days in office.
"That will take us through to March next year," he said.
"Because of the Christmas and New Year break, I have extended it out to 150 rather than 100 days."
First on the list was the Three Waters reforms which Tripe wanted the council to strongly oppose and devise an alternative plan for Whanganui.
"I also want us to be proactive on other local government reforms and I think we can front-foot the Future of Local Government Review by having a wishlist for Whanganui.
"I want us to be a high-performing team and I want us to get out and be visible."
Tripe said he also wanted to get to work on addressing homelessness in the city.
"We need solutions and actions. There have been some community meetings that haven't translated into actions and we need to make the solutions happen. That may involve bringing in expertise from outside Whanganui."
A streamlining of council services was a priority as well as a thorough assessment of the council's current and future assets.
He also wanted to work through the council's long-term plan with the council, chief executive and staff, to get a clear picture of how various projects were tracking.
"We will also need to focus on the review of the Leading Edge strategy which I devised with the council when Annette Main was the mayor. It needs a refresh because a lot has happened since that time."
Tripe said he wanted to work with the newly-elected representatives to talk about the goals they campaigned on and how they might be translated into actions.
"I think we have a really good balance of gender and age range now with a couple of younger candidates elected but it is disappointing that we still don't have mana whenua representation.
"That's why iwi engagement is more important than ever and I want to make it a priority for the first 150 days. We need to make sure the engagement is strong and develop an
understanding of aspirations and make sure they can align."
Another goal was to connect with businesses to build on skills development in the district.
Tripe wanted to talk to the council candidates who weren't successful in their election bids this time.
"There were some excellent ideas put forward during their campaigns and when someone goes to all that trouble, it's worth considering their input."
Tripe said he would also like to see more social cohesion in Whanganui and encourage the community to put differences of opinion aside.
"I'd like to put a figurative fence around Whanganui and say 'let's be different'," Tripe said.
"If we take the time to understand others' perspectives and respectfully disagree we can make really good progress by being unified."
Tripe said his overarching goal was to lead the community by serving as a visible, responsive and proactive mayor.
