Former Newshub presenter Isobel Ewing has had a year most people couldn't script. The 36-year-old Kiwi journalist found out she was pregnant just as her work covering the outbreak of the Iran war ramped up — meaning her first trimester played out on live television, at 5am shifts, during weeks of extended coverage.
"My first trimester coincided with the start of the Iran war," she told Woman's Weekly, recalling that the missiles started flying on February 28 and, soon after, so did her morning sickness. Extended studio hours and relentless nausea made for a brutal combination, though she somehow made it through every broadcast without being sick on air — she credits the studio adrenaline for carrying her through.
The pregnancy also collided with the conflict in a more practical way. Ewing and her partner, 30-year-old Canadian environmental engineer Cael Geier, were based in Türkiye at the time, and as regional tensions escalated they worried they might get stuck. News of shrinking jet fuel supplies and soaring flight prices — tied to disruption around the Strait of Hormuz — had them seriously weighing up whether their baby, due in late October, might end up being born in Istanbul. Instead, they managed a chaotic exit: leaving Türkiye, dropping their two cats in Canada, then finally making it home to New Zealand, where Ewing's parents are delighted to be welcoming their first grandchild.
The couple, who were set up by a mutual friend in 2023, aren't doing things conventionally. They eloped a year ago in Tbilisi, Georgia, and are planning a second celebration in February at St Arnaud, the small village by Nelson Lakes National Park. They've booked out a lodge with a rustic, school-camp feel — a big deck over native bush, lake views — and will hold the ceremony in the village's little wooden chapel, which looks out across the mountains. Cael's Canadian family and their Kiwi friends will join, along with the couple's three-month-old baby, whose sex they're keeping as a surprise. Ewing's grandmothers, aged 91 and 95, will be there too. Her one remaining logistical puzzle: finding a wedding dress that works for breastfeeding and a shifting postpartum body.
The couple have just started antenatal classes — where the fathers-to-be were quizzed on anatomy with mixed results — and Ewing plans to give birth at a Waikato birthing unit. Long term, they hope to settle in Canada and raise their child the way they both grew up: outdoorsy, animal-loving and fond of family tramping trips.
Why does this matter to travellers? It's a rare, honest look at what happens when world events collide with personal plans — the flights that vanish in price and availability, the contingency weddings and birthing plans made from a third country, and the reality that sometimes the best-laid travel year turns into something entirely different. It's also a gentle plug for two genuinely lovely spots: Tbilisi as an offbeat elopement choice, and St Arnaud as a quiet alpine wedding setting.
Story via NZ Herald Travel.
