Fireman's burning love IHAKARA'S RED-HOT PROPOSAL

Girlfriend Bailey was taken aback when her beloved’s graduation became personal

- Cloe Willetts

It was a sunny day in Rotorua as Ihakara Masoe dropped to one knee with 25 of Fire and Emergency New Zealand’s newest recruits lined up behind him. In the backdrop, a large banner hung from the top of the National Training Centre displaying the words, “Bailey will you marry me?”

Bailey Coburn, his pregnant partner of four years, stood bewildered before quickly accepting Ihakara’s proposal, which took place during his fire service graduation.

“I knew the proposal was coming, but I hadn’t expected it then and there!” laughs the expectant mum, 25, who is 39 weeks’ pregnant with a baby boy. “None of our families knew either. Ihakara had asked for my dad’s permission last year, but no one knew it was happening on that day. I was in complete shock.”

When former roofing factory worker Ihakara, 25, headed from their home in Tawa to Rotorua for his 12-week recruit training in April, he knew he wanted to propose to Bailey, a nurse.

With the help of his fellow coursemates, who knew about his grand plan to pop the question during graduation, the soon-to-be dad decided on the idea of a giant banner.

“Once I got permission, everyone was super keen and excited to help me,” Ihakara shares. “We’d been practising our graduation marching for weeks, including two guys rolling a proposal banner down the side of the training building, which I made from a big tarpaulin.”