‘He calls me Windy Beach Bottom’: When a mortifying first date ends in true love

Cora-Allan Lafaiki Twiss, 36 (Ngāphui, Ngāti Tumutumu, Niuean), is a visual artist who creates traditional Niuean hiapo bark cloth painting. She is married to Daniel-Emmett Twiss, 33 (Native American), a stay-at-home father of the couple’s two children, Chaske-Waste, 6, and Wakiya-Wacipi, 2. They live in West Auckland.

Daniel-Emmett:

I was born in Washington state and when I was 14 years old I started doing traditional Native American grass dances. I ended up traveling the world with him, from Peru, India and Australia to an indigenous conference in New Zealand in 2011.

At that time, I was free and single. I was open to the idea of ​​a relationship, but I was busy traveling and doing my thing.

I joked with the family I was staying with in Auckland that I loved New Zealand so much I would try to get married in the country. So they started sending me Facebook profiles of women they knew. It was a bit of a joke and I saw about 10 profiles but the only one I liked was Cora’s.

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It wasn’t a particularly flattering image because he was making a duck face and had reindeer antlers on his head, but I’ve always been drawn to silliness, to people who don’t take themselves too seriously. Cora is beautiful too so that helped.

Our relationship was a…