We're very sorry but this competition has now closed!

We've had a great reaction to the An Affair With Ireland competition - there were so many beautiful and touching stories, it made the task of choosing a winner very difficult.

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And the winning couple? Recent newly-weds Moka and Kylie, who will now be honeymooning in Ireland! 

Here's the winning entry that touched our hearts -

Moka & Kylie
Please share with us the story of how you met.
I was 14 and Kylie was 13 when we first met. We were at boarding school and my best mate liked Kylie - Kylie’s best mate liked me. Least to say, we became good friends. After college, Kylie went to Victoria University and I went to Waikato. We saw each other at inter-varsity parties, sports events, kapahaka festivals and seemed to always gravitate towards each other – time and time again. It wasn’t long and we started seeing each other long distance. We were 17 and 18. We would travel up and down the country when we could and thank God for the Telecom $5 calling weekends – we would call each other on Friday night and wouldn’t hang the phone up until Sunday night! When I finished varsity, I moved to Wgtn, got my first job and we lived together before splitting up in our early 20’s. She broke my heart! We didn’t see each other for about 12 years after that. During that time, we both went on to travel the world and did lots of things we had talked about in our youth (except Kylie never made it to Ireland). It was fate that bought us back together 12 years later. I had returned from Iraq and Kylie had come back from London. We had both lived many of our dreams and coming back into New Zealand we bumped into each other at a pub. I wasn’t going to miss an opportunity so I asked Kylie on a date. We talked and laughed for hours on end and the rest is history – in 2009 we got engaged and on 27 November 2010 amongst our closest family and friends we got married. Reflecting back –it just goes to show that dreams do come true! Now we’re living our dreams together. Who would’ve thought…

When was the last time you acted on impulse and followed your heart?
After doing a 4 day hike into the Andes we finally reached the top of Machu Picchu – The lost city of the Inca's. On the spur of the moment I went down on bended knee to propose to my partner Kylie. It wasn’t planned, I DIDN’T HAVE A RING….but something about that magical place surrounded by mountains that almost seemed to touch the sky – sunlight reflecting off those peaks felt like the perfect romantic moment to pop the big Q! And to top it off…..Kylie said “YES”. We danced on the mountain top oblivious to the odd 200 tourists watching!

Why should you win a romantic trip for two toIreland?
We reckon we should win because we would love to travel to Ireland together for a romantic honeymoon. We got married on 27 November 2010 and we haven’t had a honeymoon yet. We’re into living dreams together now and this is one of them – we love travelling, we love meeting people from different cultures and experiencing new and wonderful things. How perfect would our story be with a dream honeymoon to Ireland because for us…..a honeymoon in Ireland would be a DREAM come true!

How do you picture your dream day in Ireland?
Spent with locals sightseeing cultural and historic places – learning about the nations stories, tasting the national food and drink, experiencing traditional dance and song, a spot of shopping, sharing a pint of Guinness with the locals, watching a Gaelic football match and seeing the sunrise and sunset.

You can still visit the competition website if you'd like to browse the entries, however any new entries or votes will not be counted.